Strangers investors will chat top financial officials of Turkeyattempting an ultimate attempt to calm the markets, after the detention of a key opposition official last week caused dollars outflows from Turkish assets.
Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and Turkish Central Bank Governor Fatih Karahan are scheduled to speak today (25.3.25) at noon at a teleconference held by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank, the Treasury said on his website.
The two leaders of the economy are expected to reinforce yesterday’s promise of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to keep the investors -friendly policies that have been implemented since Simsek, a former Wall Street banker, was appointed in 2023.
The arrest and later the official arrest of Constantinople mayor Errem Imamoglou, Erdogan’s most terrible and popular political opponent, led to mass demonstrations on the streets last Wednesday and sent Turkish elements.
Authorities have taken extraordinary measures to halt the financial slopes, including the increase in the basic interest rate of one day, the intervention in the exchange rate and the ban on open sales of Turkish shares.
“We will never allow the profits we have earned from the financial program implemented in the last two years,” Erdogan said in television statements following a meeting of the cabinet yesterday (24.3.25). “Our institutions have both the power and the willingness to secure healthy market mechanisms.”
The government showed no sign of retreat against protesters who are on the streets daily after Imamoglou’s arrest, with Erdogan describing the demonstrations “bad”. He accused the opposition’s reaction to market instability.
Regulation of the market
Turkey’s shares and currency have reached the largest fall worldwide last week and bond yields in local currency have increased sharply. This happened despite the central bank’s intervention in the currency market with an injection of $ 11.2 billion only on March 19, according to Bloomberg Economics estimates.
The Central Bank also increased the one -day interest rate on a unplanned meeting on Thursday and then convened executives from the country’s top lenders on Sunday, March 23, 2025 in another attempt to halt the fall. Meanwhile, authorities are weighing additional measures to mitigate market volatility, including a reduction in a pound tax withholding, to support the currency and prevent locals from turning their savings into dollars.
“It seems that officials are trying to draw a line in the sand, hoping that the political storm will pass and markets will forget the whole thing,” said Nick Rees, head of Monex Europe’s macroeconomic research in London. “At the moment, this seems to work.”