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Post by OmegaMan on May 24, 2018 1:04:02 GMT -5
`God Help Turkey,' Says Brokerage as Lira Goes Into MeltdownBenjamin Harvey (Bloomberg) -- With Turkey’s central bank sitting on the sidelines observing a currency meltdown and double-digit inflation, one brokerage is looking for help from a higher power. “God help Turkey,” Istanbul-based broker Alnus Yatirim said in the sign-off to its morning note to clients on Monday. “We’re faced with a central bank that is watching the market when it needs to lead and direct it.”
a screenshot of a cell phone: Lira Slumps Versus Dollar© Bloomberg Lira Slumps Versus Dollar
Lira’s decline versus dollar since Jan. 1 The comments come as Turkey competes with Argentina, Angola and Venezuela for the world’s worst-performing currency this year. The Turkish lira has declined more than 17 percent against the dollar in 2018, the most outside those three nations. Such losses will continue if there’s no intervention, Alnus said. Based on the pace of the lira’s weakening in recent weeks, the currency could fall to 4.58 per dollar by the end of this week and 4.75 per greenback next week, the brokerage said. The lira dropped as much as 2.3 percent to touch a record low of 4.5946 per dollar as of 4 p.m. in Istanbul on Monday. The market is testing whether the central bank’s verbal interventions are a bluff or not, Alnus said. Without policy action, the damage is likely to spiral, it said, citing the $222 billion of net debt held by Turkish non-financial companies in overseas currencies. Each 1 cent depreciation in the currency adds about 5 billion liras to the cost of Turkey’s foreign borrowings, it said. link
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Post by schwartzie on May 25, 2018 15:16:03 GMT -5
Iraq says suicide bomber kills 7 in northern Baghdad park
At least 16 people were wounded in the attack, which the officials said could have claimed many more victims if the bomber had gotten himself deeper into the park. (Reuters) The Associated Press, BaghdadThursday, 24 May 2018 A suicide bomber blew himself up late Wednesday at a crowded park in Iraq’s capital, killing at least seven people in the first such attack in Baghdad since the start a week ago of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, security officials said. They said police and emergency workers intercepted the bomber as he entered the park in Shoala, a mainly Shiite district in northern Baghdad, but he managed to set off his bomb before being caught. At least 16 people were wounded in the attack, which the officials said could have claimed many more victims if the bomber had gotten himself deeper into the park before blowing himself up. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Baghdad’s parks, outdoor eateries, cafes and commercial areas are usually packed during Ramadan starting shortly after sunset until the small hours of the next day when Muslims eat their last meal before they begin their daily dawn-to-sunset fast. Ramadan this year fell in the summer, making the fast particularly grueling given the season’s typically high temperatures in Iraq. Muslims refrain from drink, food and sex from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, which began in Iraq on May 17. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, which bore the hallmarks of the Islamic State extremist group. Iraq has been plagued by nearly daily attacks blamed on militants for most of the 15 years since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Baghdad, a favorite target, has seen a dramatic drop in the number of attacks blamed on militants since the government declared victory over the IS group in December. That ended more than three years of war in which security forces backed by a US-led coalition drove IS fighters out of large swaths of territory once held by the group. IS pockets remain in western and northern Iraq where militants occasionally attack security forces. link
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