The lira drops to a new low .. Turkey announces a...

The Turkish lira touched a new record low against the dollar, today, Tuesday, as investors assess the repercussions of the conflict in the Caucasus, and this came before Finance Minister Barat Albayrak announced a new medium-term economic program in which he expected positive growth this year despite the Corona virus crisis.

The pound reached a record low of 7.8477 against the dollar, retreating from Monday’s close of 7.81 pounds per dollar.

And the Turkish currency is down by about 24% since the beginning of this year due to concerns about the exhaustion of Turkey’s foreign exchange reserves and negative interest rates.

Bloomberg said the decline comes amid concern about the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

At the end of last week, the Turkish central bank raised the main interest rate for the first time since the currency crisis occurred in late 2018, in a move that surprised analysts who had expected to maintain interest rates.

The Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance said today, Tuesday, that his country aims, through implementing strategic reforms in the financial markets, to support the effective distribution of resources and raise the level of financial awareness.

The minister expected the budget deficit to gradually decrease during the new economic program by 3.5% relative to the gross domestic product by the end of the current period.

He also expected positive economic growth of 0.3% at the end of this year, in addition to a gradual decline in the unemployment rate to the level of 10.9% by 2023.

He indicated that the new economic program aims to achieve growth of 5.8% in 2021, and 5% in 2022 and 2023.

The minister stated that the support packages during the Corona epidemic amounted to 494 billion Turkish liras, equivalent to 10% of the GDP.

He added that the new program is based on 3 main axes; These are the “new equilibrium,” “the new economy,” and “adaptation to the new normal.”

Confidence index

Meanwhile, the index of confidence in the Turkish economy rose by 3.1% on a monthly basis in September, to reach 88.5 points.

A statement by the Turkish Statistics Authority, today, Tuesday, indicated that the rise in the economic confidence index was the result of an increase in consumer confidence indicators, the real sector and the services sector.

The Economic Sentiment Index is a composite index that contains the assessments and expectations of consumers and producers about the general economic situation.

The statement pointed out that the real sector confidence index increased by 0.5% to reach 105.7 points, while the services sector confidence index increased by 6.4%, to reach 74.9 points.

On the other hand, the retail trade sector confidence index decreased by 1.5%, and the construction sector confidence index decreased by 2%.

The Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance said in his assessment of the economic confidence index data via Twitter, today, Tuesday, that these positive data provide strong messages for the future, stressing that we are confidently moving towards a strong future through a strong financial infrastructure.