No Turkish Delight For The South African Rand

The Turkish lira took a nosedive in August and while that in itself doesn’t have much to do with SA, it does cause investors to rethink their exposure to emerging currencies.

- Schalk Louw

if you have a trip scheduled to Turkey, recent developments could mean you end up paying less than you bargained for. According to Numbeo.com, an item like a local beer would have cost you around R27.20 in Istanbul during December 2017, while the very same beer would have cost you only R17.42 as at 13 August 2018.

I am sure that most of our readers will know that the official currency of Turkey is the lira. And the reason why everyone knows this, is because it has been cited as the main reason for the biggest butchering of our local rand in years.

Before I air my opinion on whether this butchering was justified, I first want to revisit the reasons for the Turkish lira’s beating.

First off, the long-term decline of the Turkish economy has to carry the lion’s share of the blame. But the lira also lost a massive 23.5% of its value against the US dollar between 6 August and 13 August this year after President Donald Trump announced that US importing tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium would double in price.