The Turkish lira hit a record low on Thursday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said interest rates would decline, spooking financial investors already skittish about his new government’s ability to manage a potential currency crisis.
The lira, which has lost more than a fifth of its value so far this year, hit a record low of 4.98 to the dollar before recovering some of its losses. It is still down about 6% this week after Erdogan appointed Berat Albayrak, who is married to his daughter, to run the economy in a cabinet he announced after swearing in as Turkey’s vastly empowered president on Monday.
