Turkish Lira firms as Deputy PM Şimşek, Central Bank chief meet investors

ISTANBUL - Reuters

The Turkish Lira firmed to 4.66 against the dollar on May 28 as investors weighed up comments by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek and Central Bank Governor Murat Çetinkaya after last week’s emergency 300 basis point interest rate hike.

Şimşek and Çetinkaya held talks in Istanbul on May 27 with investors and conveyed confidence-building messages and signals regarding the normalization and simplification of monetary policy, participants in the talks said.

They were to hold similar talks in London on May 28.

Bankers at the Istanbul meeting said Şimşek’s comments focused on the government’s achievements and plans, stressing fiscal discipline, tight monetary policy and the commitment to the market economy, similar to comments he made last week.

“We understand that a move towards simplification and normalization in monetary policy could come onto the agenda in what could be expressed as ‘the days ahead’,” said Serhat Gürleyen, research direct at İş Investment.

“We had the impression that the Central Bank envisages keeping monetary policy sufficiently tight for a long time,” he said.

Turkey will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24 which will trigger the country’s move to an executive presidential system.

Alongside last week’s rate hike, the Central Bank has taken a series of measures to ease forex liquidity.

The lira hit a record low of 4.9290 last week.