Turkey may have to hike rates - Goldman Sachs

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

Turkey’s central bank may soon need to hike interest rates to stem the fall in Lira, according to analysts from Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Lira fell to a fresh record low of 7.3037 per US dollar on Thursday, surpassing the previous lifetime low of 7.2683 reached on May 7. The currency has depreciated by 4% this week alone and is down 21% on a year-to-date basis,

Behind the slide are rising concerns about Turkey’s level of foreign exchange reserves and aggressive monetary policy easing. The central bank has cut interest rates by 1,575 basis points since July 2019.

While analysts at Goldman Sachs and Oxford Economics think rate increases may be warranted soon, others are less bearish, according to a Bloomberg report.

The cost of overnight funding jumped to over 1,000% earlier this week, making it hard for foreign investors to borrow the currency and bet against it.

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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