Traders say Turkey used $12 billion in foreign reserves to maintain lira stability

Golden Ten Data, March 6 – According to informed traders, due to global market volatility triggered by the Iran war, Turkey has used approximately $12 billion in foreign exchange reserves to maintain the stability of the lira, which is about 15% of its foreign exchange reserves. Before the market opened on Monday, the Central Bank of Turkey tightened liquidity conditions, and after the opening, banks intervened by selling US dollars to curb volatility. They stated that the scale of dollar sales gradually declined this week, and no such transactions were observed on Thursday. The intervention made the Turkish lira one of the best-performing emerging market currencies this week, falling only 0.1% against the US dollar. As of last Friday, the Central Bank of Turkey's net foreign exchange reserves (excluding swap lines with banks) stood at $78.4 billion, and with the central bank's gold holdings included, the total reserves were about $200 billion.