The Turkish lira is once again close to crashing, as the dollar increased to as much as 6.1976 against the lira earlier today. The spike was caused by a controversial decision of the Turkish authorities to cancel the results from the recent elections under the pressure of President Erdogan.
The elections in question were held in March and were for local governments in the municipalities. Erdogan’s party did not perform well in the elections, losing the majority in important cities like Istanbul and the capital Ankara. The President announced that he disagreed with the vote of the people and took measures to act against it, which now culminated in pressuring the authorities to proclaim the elections were illegitimate.
In 2019 alone the USD has appreciated by more than 16% against the Turkish lira, which is among the worst-performing currencies in the world right now. The Argentinian peso remains worse off, but Argentine actually had to be bailed out by the IMF.
