Foreign investors remain cautious over Turkish assets after last week’s plunge in the value of the lira, despite huge intervention to prop up the currency and restore confidence.
The central bank — which had rebuilt the country’s net foreign reserves from deep in the red to about $65bn in the last year — committed more than $25bn in a matter of days, after the lira plunged to a record low beyond 40 to the dollar last week.
The sum, calculated by the Financial Times and referenced by the central bank governor in a call with investors, reflects the high cost of shoring up support for Turkey’s fragile economy in a dramatic week since the detention of Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul’s mayor and the most serious opposition challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The detention triggered the biggest protests in years and hundreds of arrests.