Erdogan ignores market in crusade against interest rates
The Turkish prime minister and the minister of economy are pushing to dramatically cut interest rates, though Turkey's Central Bank has expressed reservations.
A group led by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci, enthusiastically supported by exporters behind the scenes, has declared war on the “interest lobby.”
This new "combat group" is called the “foreign exchange lobby," whose members want to lower the value of the Turkish currency so that they can increase exports. Zeybekci says that to increase exports and discourage imports the exchange rate must be 2.15-2.25 Turkish lira to the dollar (it's currently about 2.12).
