U.S. is stabbing Turkey in the back, says Erdoğan

Agence France-Presse, ISTANBUL,  AUGUST 13, 2018 

Central Bank offers liquidity assistance but no rate hike
Turkey’s Central Bank on Monday sought to calm markets rattled by the precipitous plunge of the Turkish lira as a defiant President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan chastised the U.S. for seeking to stab Ankara “in the back”.

A dispute between NATO allies Turkey and the United States — which reached new intensity over the detention of an American pastor — has hammered the lira and also raised questions over the future partnership between Washington and Ankara.

As the latest developments caused the lira to plunge further in value, investors fretted over potential economic contagion from Turkey, particularly to European banks.

Lira’s 16% tumble
The already embattled Turkish lira tumbled some 16% against the dollar on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump said he had doubled tariffs on steel and aluminium from Turkey. “We are together in NATO and then you seek to stab your strategic partner in the back. Can such a thing be accepted?” Mr. Erdoğan said at a conference in the capital Ankara.

After Mr. Erdoğan’s speech, the lira was trading back at 6.9 to the dollar, a loss of 7% on the day, recovering from even sharper losses in earlier Asian trade where it struck a record low of 7.2362 to the greenback.

In its first statement since what was dubbed “Black Friday” in Turkey, the Central Bank said it was ready to take “all necessary measures” to ensure financial stability, promising to provide banks with “all the liquidity” they need. The bank also revised reserve requirement ratios for banks, in a move also aimed at staving off any liquidity issues. But to the dismay of markets, the statement gave no clear promise of rate hikes.

Mr. Erdoğan indicated that he was in no mood to offer concessions to the United States in one of the worst spats between the two NATO allies in years. He said Turkey was facing an “economic siege”, slamming the currency movements as an “attack against our country”. Mr. Erdoğan has been sanguine over the punitive measures announced by the U.S., saying that while Turkey’s relationship with Washington is at stake, it will look for other partners.

‘Tools of exploitation’
Mr. Erdoğan on Saturday described interest rates as a “tool of exploitation”, in remarks unlikely to impress the markets.

The Interior Ministry launched an investigation into 346 social media accounts on grounds of “provocative sharings”, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

American pastor Andrew Brunson has been held since October 2016 on terror and espionage charges and, if convicted, could face a jail term of 35 years. Mr. Trump has described his detention as a “total disgrace” and urged Mr. Erdoğan to free him immediately.

A delegation led by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal failed to secure a deal last Wednesday in talks in Washington on a number of issues including Mr. Brunson.

Reference

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India Joins Russia in Voting Against West-Backed Move to Expand Powers of OPCW

The Wire: June 28, 2018 New Delhi: India voted against a UK-backed move that will allow the global chemical weapons watchdog to apportion blame for illegal attacks, criticising the decision to grant “unchecked powers” to the head of the group which could be used for “partisan” purposes. On Wednesday, more than two-thirds of the member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted to authorise the international body to identify the perpetrators and sponsors of a chemical weapons attack. It also specifically called on the OPCW’s technical secretariat to begin work on identifying the perpetrators behind the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The draft decision, sponsored by 30 countries, was adopted at the fourth special session of the conference of the states parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at the Hague, with 82 in favour and 24 negative votes. While Europe, the United States and their allies voted ‘yes’, there was strong oppo...
Read more

As financial insecurity rises in urban India, so does investment in insurance

Image
Scroll.in March 13, 2020 Urban Indians are becoming less confident about their financial security. Up to 58% of them fret over financial independence post retirement, which is a 4% increase from last year. An equal share of urban Indians worry about meeting their daily medical expenses and sustaining their current lifestyle once they stop working. The findings are part of a survey published by Delhi-based Max Life Insurance in association with London-based consultancy Kantar. The firms surveyed 7,014 respondents in 25 cities, including six metros, nine tier-1 cities, and 10 tier-2 cities, between December 2019 and January 2020. Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz The trends Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz Source: Max Life Insurance via Quartz A significant share of urban Indians also say their families will have no financial support in the event of the breadwinner’s death. In such a scenario, around 57% believe the family sav...
Read more

ED tracks Swiss Bank A/Cs of Agusta scamster

The Poineer February 10,2019 Rakesh K Singh The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has tracked a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the name of Rajiv Saxena, who is key accused in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. The ED has also found out accounts held by  his family members and associates where the kickbacks in the now scrapped deal were allegedly parked. Two bank accounts are in the name of Rajiv Saxena’s  associates Pankaj Jain and Sumita Jain who are also the authorised signatories. The  third is in the name of another associate Ajit Singh Bubber, but Rajiv and his family members are authorised signatories. The remaining nine accounts are largely owned and operated by Rajiv, his family members and associates. Rajiv Saxena was deported by the UAE authorities on January 30 and the ED formally arrested him the next day and a court later granted his remand to the agency. He is currently undergoing custodial interrogation by the ED. The agency had in 2017...
Read more