Apple appears to have temporarily halted sales of devices in Turkey as the country’s economic crisis deepened on Tuesday morning. The lira dropped 15 percent after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan staunchly defended recent rate cuts, reports Reuters.
Apple’s Turkey storefront is up and operational, but no devices are able to be added to a virtual cart or purchased at this time because of the volatility.
A Turkish lira is equivalent to approximately 0.078 U.S. dollars at the current time, and its value has been steadily falling since last week. Over the course of the last year, the Lira has dropped 45 percent vs. the dollar.
It is not clear when Apple might resume sales in Turkey, but inflation is close to 20 percent and with Erdogan continuing to refuse to raise interest rates, the downward slide may continue.
