CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 77% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

EM currencies plunge as lira keeps crashing

06:17 13 August 2018

Summary:

  • EM currencies declines across the board steered by the TRY weakness

  • Turkish President Erdogan sticks to its unorthodox view

  • Turkey cuts reserve requirements to boost liquidity and undertakes several other steps

  • US sets a deadline  for Turkey to release pastor, Erdogan says

The Turkish currency remains in the spotlight as the new trading week is slowly unfolding. The TRY began the week with a gargantuan decline on late Sunday as it crashed above 7.2 per dollar following Erdogan’s speeches over the weekend and remarkably thin volatility conditions then. Other EM currencies have also taken a hit with the South African rand plummeting over 10% on late Sunday. Taking a look at the FX space in the morning one may sum up that things are unlikely to be sorted out any time soon. As of 6:43 am BST the lira is trading at 6.9245 per dollar (roughly 7% down on a daily basis), the ZAR is plunging 3.9%, and the Mexican peso is falling 1.5%. Overall, the entire EM FX basket is experiencing its heaviest 2-day decline since the US presidential election in November 2016. What happened over the weekend?

Start investing today or test a free demo

Open account Try demo Download mobile app Download mobile app

Emerging markets currency index hits its lowest level since mid-2017 driven by the TRY runaway sell-off. Source: Bloomberg

Let us begin with highly contentious comments of Recep Erdogan who spoke repeatedly on Sunday. He stood by his opposition to high interest rates claiming the lira’s weakness did not reflect the country’s economic realities. In this respect he could be right at least to some extent as the latest runaway TRY’s plunge has begun when relations with the United States have deteriorated in connection with a US pastor being imprisoned in Turkey. Therefore a currency attack being steered by the US is highly possible. Nevertheless, do not forget that the Turkey’s economy itself does not look well alike. Taking into account the plunging lira one may anticipate domestic inflation to soar and being completely out of the CBRT’s control given the unaltered stance of Erdogan with respect to monetary policy. Furthermore, speaking in Trabzon the Turkish president dismissed any suggestions that the country was in a financial crisis like some Asian countries had been two decades ago. This view seems to be astonishing given what has happened with the lira over the recent weeks. All in all, Erdogan appears to stick to his unorthodox view receding odds for any rate hikes that seem to be necessary to take downward pressure off the currency (a US pastor release could also help the TRY recoup some of its gains when relations with the US improved).

In the Monday’s morning the CBRT cut reserve requirements for all maturities by 250 basis points in an attempt to boost liquidity. However, this step did not help the currency for longer as it resumed falling a while later. On top of that, the central bank ensured that more than one repo auctions will be conducted per day in order to meet any liquidity demands. In turn, on Sunday the Turkish banking watchdog BDDK announced it will limit Turkish banks’s swap, spot and forward transactions with foreign investors to 50% of a bank’s equity. Finally, Recep Erdogan referred to the latest negotiations in Washington saying that the US gave Turkey a deadline (till Wednesday) to release the US pastor. Let us notice that Donald Trump authorized a doubling of steel and aluminium tariffs against Turkey, and one may suppose that more such steps could be taken in nearest future if Turkey did not release the pastor. To sum up, given the informations we were offered over the past two days one could expect that disorderly moves on the TRY could still take place which in turn may spill over other EM currencies weighing on equities and encouraging investors to seek safer assets such as US bonds.

The currency crisis in Turkey keeps unfolding with no signs of relief on the horizon. Source: xStation5

This content has been created by XTB S.A. This service is provided by XTB S.A., with its registered office in Warsaw, at Prosta 67, 00-838 Warsaw, Poland, entered in the register of entrepreneurs of the National Court Register (Krajowy Rejestr Sądowy) conducted by District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw, XII Commercial Division of the National Court Register under KRS number 0000217580, REGON number 015803782 and Tax Identification Number (NIP) 527-24-43-955, with the fully paid up share capital in the amount of PLN 5.869.181,75. XTB S.A. conducts brokerage activities on the basis of the license granted by Polish Securities and Exchange Commission on 8th November 2005 No. DDM-M-4021-57-1/2005 and is supervised by Polish Supervision Authority.

Back
Xtb logo

Join over 935 000 investors from around the world

We use cookies

By clicking “Accept All”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

This group contains cookies that are necessary for our websites to work. They take part in functionalities like language preferences, traffic distribution or keeping user session. They cannot be disabled.

Cookie name
Description
SERVERID
userBranchSymbol cc 2 March 2024
adobe_unique_id cc 1 March 2025
test_cookie cc 1 March 2024
SESSID cc 9 September 2022
__hssc cc 1 March 2024
__cf_bm cc 1 March 2024
intercom-id-iojaybix cc 26 November 2024
intercom-session-iojaybix cc 8 March 2024

We use tools that let us analyze the usage of our page. Such data lets us improve the user experience of our web service.

Cookie name
Description
_gid cc 9 September 2022
_gat_UA-22576382-1 cc 8 September 2022
_gat_UA-121192761-1 cc 8 September 2022
_ga_CBPL72L2EC cc 1 March 2026
_ga cc 1 March 2026
AnalyticsSyncHistory cc 8 October 2022
af_id cc 31 March 2025
afUserId cc 1 March 2026
af_id cc 1 March 2026
AF_SYNC cc 8 March 2024
__hstc cc 28 August 2024
__hssrc

This group of cookies is used to show you ads of topics that you are interested in. It also lets us monitor our marketing activities, it helps to measure the performance of our ads.

Cookie name
Description
MUID cc 26 March 2025
_omappvp cc 11 February 2035
_omappvs cc 1 March 2024
_uetsid cc 2 March 2024
_uetvid cc 26 March 2025
_fbp cc 30 May 2024
fr cc 7 December 2022
muc_ads cc 7 September 2024
lang
_ttp cc 26 March 2025
_tt_enable_cookie cc 26 March 2025
_ttp cc 26 March 2025
hubspotutk cc 28 August 2024

Cookies from this group store your preferences you gave while using the site, so that they will already be here when you visit the page after some time.

Cookie name
Description
personalization_id cc 7 September 2024
UserMatchHistory cc 8 October 2022
bcookie cc 8 September 2023
lidc cc 9 September 2022
lang
bscookie cc 8 September 2023
li_gc cc 7 March 2023

This page uses cookies. Cookies are files stored in your browser and are used by most websites to help personalise your web experience. For more information see our Privacy Policy You can manage cookies by clicking "Settings". If you agree to our use of cookies, click "Accept all".

Change region and language
Country of residence
Language