Turkish lira slides as finance minister struggles to impress

Investors in Washington left “underwhelmed” by Berat Albayrak’s reform plan

 

The Turkish lira stumbled on Friday after the country’s finance minister struggled to impress investors with his new economic reform programme on a visit to Washington.

Fund managers and analysts crammed into a ballroom at the Park Hyatt hotel on Thursday, with some attendees spilling out into the adjacent corridor. They were keen to hear Berat Albayrak elaborate on the plans announced earlier in the week, which were crowned by a broadly well-received promise to inject 28bn lira ($4.9bn) of fresh capital into the country’s state-owned banks.

The meeting was hosted by JPMorgan, the US investment bank that just weeks ago became the subject of two investigations by Turkish regulators, who accused it of publishing “misleading and manipulative” advice to clients to sell the lira.

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