Turkey's central bank may sell around $10 billion from its reserves to stabilize the national currency, which plummeted following reports of the detention of opposition Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. This was reported by the business newspaper Ekonomim.
After Istanbul police conducted an operation on Wednesday morning detaining 84 individuals, including İmamoğlu, out of 106 suspects in a case related to corruption and support for terrorism, the US dollar surged by 11% against the Turkish lira, exceeding 41 lira per dollar.
Following the central bank's intervention, the Turkish currency stabilized in the afternoon, dropping below 39 lira per $1. The euro exchange rate also declined from 44 to 42 lira per euro.
Market sources cited by Ekonomim indicate that the Turkish Central Bank has already sold over $5 billion. According to Bloomberg, the bank's total interventions amounted to $8–9 billion to support the national currency.
The Istanbul Stock Exchange halted trading twice during the day due to a sharp drop in the BIST 100 index. The first automatic suspension occurred at 09:55 local time (matching Moscow time), and the second at 14:08, Sözcü TV reported, noting that many publicly traded company stocks lost value.
Turkey’s Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek assured that authorities are taking necessary measures to stabilize the situation. "Everything necessary is being done to ensure the healthy functioning of the markets," he wrote on X.
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Based on materials from TASS