Jakarta –
Turkey’s currency, the lira, is down 45% this year. However, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan doesn’t seem worried about it.
Quoted from the BBC, Monday (12/6/2021) Erdoan continues to encourage his country’s economy with various policies that are contrary to the concerns of economists. One of them is lowering interest rates in Turkey, at a time when inflation in the world and Turkey is rising.
For Erdoan, rising interest rates will only make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
But on the other hand, inflation in Turkey has soared above 21%. Now the interest rate in Turkey has just been lowered again from 16% to 15%. The decline was the third time in a year.
This policy is what makes Turkey’s currency, the Lira, plummet. The decline in the value of the lira also coincided with Erdoan, who has replaced the President of the Central Bank three times. Last week, Erdogan also replaced Turkey’s finance minister.
Not to mention, the Turkish economy relies heavily on imports to produce goods from food to textiles, so the increase in the dollar against the lira has a direct impact on the prices of products circulating in the community.
For example, Tomatoes are an important ingredient in Turkish cuisine. To grow tomatoes, producers need to buy imported fertilizers and gas. Because of that, according to the Chamber of Commerce at the Agricultural Center, Antalya tomato prices rose 75% in August, compared to the previous year.
One of the farmers, Sadiye Kaleci, complained that he had to sell cheap food raw materials, but the cost of buying them was already expensive. Now the price of gasoline, fertilizers, and plants also goes up.
“How can we make money from this? We sell cheap, but buy expensive,” he said.
Watch Videos “Erdogan Expels 10 Ambassadors of Western Countries from Turkey“
[Gambas:Video 20detik]
(the the)
– .
