Turkish postal service converts $172 mln and 20 mln euros into liras

ANKARA/ISTANBUL

AFP Photo

Turkey’s postal service (PTT) has announced that it has converted $172 million and 20 million euros of foreign exchange into Turkish Liras, in response to a call from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to boost the struggling currency. 

The lira has lost as much as one fifth of its value against the dollar this year, hit by both strength in the U.S. currency and domestic concerns. This week it recouped some losses and it is now down around 15 percent for the year.

PTT joined the likes of the energy market regulator EPDK, which had decided to hold natural gas distribution tenders in liras instead of dollars, and the Istanbul stock exchange (Borsa Istanbul), which said last week it had converted all of its cash assets into liras. The Defense Ministry also stated that the cash assets of the country’s leading defense industry fund had been converted to liras.

PTT also announced that its branches will not charge any commission from the foreign exchange conversion transactions into lira, adding that a 10 percent discount would be applied in cargo and money transfer fees to those able to prove a recent conversion of cash assets from foreign exchanges into lira.

The Hazelnut Promotion Group (FTH) also joined the campaign and announced that it had converted some $5.2 million of its $21.8 million of total cash assets into liras, adding that the remaining part of its assets would also be switched to the local currency as soon as the forex account dues end.