Turkey's crisis accelerated on Friday as the lira plunged 6% to a new all-time low, gripped by concerns over an inflationary spiral brought on by President Tayyip Erdogan's unorthodox plan to slash interest rates in the face of soaring prices.
The lira had tumbled as far as 16.69 versus the dollar by 1004 GMT. It has lost 56% of its value this year - including 40% in the last 30 days alone - deeply unsettling the major emerging market economy.
Erdogan's decision to push through 500 basis points of monetary easing since September, including another big cut on Thursday, has sent inflation soaring above 21%. It is likely to blow through 30% next year due to ballooning import prices and an emergency hike in the minimum wage, economists say.
"With Erdogan seemingly becoming more entrenched in his anti-interest rate stance, the longer the currency crisis lasts, Turkey could be beyond the point of no return," said Patrick Curran at Tellimer, describing the lira as totally disconnected from fundamentals, Reuters reported.
"We are still not ready to catch the falling knife," he said of the possibility of re-investing in Turkish assets. "As long as Erdogan is at the helm there is nothing to prevent the lira from continuing to depreciate."
The knock-on effects have been fast and painful as Turks watch their savings and earnings dissolve.
Erdogan announced a 50% hike in the minimum wage, to 4,250 lira ($275) per month next year. But that is expected to boost overall consumer price inflation by 3.5 to 10 percentage points.
The hike affects some six million workers but, given the sharp lira depreciation, the new minimum wage is still lower than the equivalent $380 a year earlier.
"We believe that the current mix of policies is essentially unsustainable," Maxim Rybnikov, director sovereign ratings for the EMEA region at S&P Global Ratings, said in a webcast.
