Erdogan calls on Turks to buy lira as the currency tumbles

World
Europe

02:24

With the Turkish economy struggling and currency plunging, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to send reassuring messages to his followers, telling them "God" is on their side and calling for national support.

He urged Turks to convert their dollars and other foreign currencies as well as gold holdings to lira.

"Change the euros, the dollars and the gold that you are keeping beneath your pillows into lira at our banks. This is a domestic and national struggle," Erdogan said.

"We are facing economic attacks today, and we need to defend our country," he noted. "The economic attack against us now is the same as the coup attempt against us. I'm urging our country to increase outputs, to increase exports."

The Turkish lira has been on a downward spiral for months, becoming one of the worst performing currencies this year. It has lost more than 35 percent of its value since January.

This year has been a difficult one for the Turkish economy as the country's currency continues to tumble. The doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports announced by the US on Friday made the situation worse.

The lira fell 20 percent against the US currency, reaching a record low, after President Donald Trump made announcement the new tariffs in a tweet on Friday. The currency last traded down 13.5 percent against the greenback.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan's son-in-law, announced a new economic model on Friday. Speaking to an audience of businesspeople, he emphasized that the Turkish Central Bank would be independent under his leadership.

"The absolute independence of this specific monetary policy continues going forward. Because when you look at the whole framework, the central bank's independence is critically fundamental regarding our economy," said Albayrak.

In the newly-announced economic model, Albayrak said steps would be taken to secure economic growth of three to four percent in 2019 and bring down inflation rates.