{"id":11932,"date":"2018-08-18T06:26:32","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T06:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11932"},"modified":"2018-08-18T06:26:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T06:26:32","slug":"turkeys-lira-weakens-5-percent-court-rejects-us-pastors-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=11932","title":{"rendered":"Turkey\u2019s lira weakens 5 percent, court rejects US pastor\u2019s appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nISTANBUL: Turkey\u2019s battered lira weakened 5 percent on Friday after a Turkish court rejected a US Christian pastor\u2019s appeal for release, a day after the US warned of further sanctions unless Ankara hands over the detained minister.<\/p>\n

\nThe currency has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year, hit by Ankara\u2019s worsening rift with Washington and investor alarm about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s influence over monetary policy. Erdogan, a self-described \u201cenemy of interest rates,\u201d wants to lower borrowing costs despite high inflation.<\/p>\n

\nThe lira crisis has deepened concerns about the broader economy \u2014 particularly Turkey\u2019s dependence on energy imports and whether foreign-currency debt levels pose a risk to the banking sector.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThere has been no sign that the central bank will be allowed to raise interest rates significantly and return rates to positive territory,\u201d said William Jackson of Capital Economics in a note to clients. \u201cSimilarly, there has been no improvement in relations with the US and additional sanctions may be on the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nAt 1256 GMT the currency stood at 6.1050 to the dollar, 5 percent weaker. Earlier in the session it fell as much as 7 percent.<\/p>\n

\nA court in the western province of Izmir rejected an appeal to release the pastor, Andrew Brunson, from house arrest, saying evidence was still being collected and he posed a potential flight risk, according to a copy of the court ruling seen by Reuters.<\/p>\n

\nBrunson, from North Carolina, is under house arrest as his trial on terrorism charges continues. He has denied the charges, and his case has been taken up by US President Donald Trump, who counts evangelical Christians among his core supporters.<\/p>\n

\nTrump said in a tweet the US \u201cwill pay nothing\u201d for Brunson\u2019s release, \u201cbut we are cutting back on Turkey!\u201d He called Brunson \u201ca great patriot hostage.\u201d Turkish officials say the case is a matter for the courts.<\/p>\n

\nTurkish sovereign dollar bonds fell, while the cost of insuring exposure to Turkish debt rose.<\/p>\n

\nThe Turkish banking watchdog has taken steps to stabilize the currency, limiting futures transactions for offshore investors and lowering limits on swap transactions. But some economists have called for more decisive moves.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey and its firms face repayments of nearly $3.8 billion on foreign currency bonds in October, Societe General has calculated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISTANBUL: Turkey\u2019s battered lira weakened 5 percent on Friday after a Turkish court rejected a US Christian pastor\u2019s appeal for release, a day after the US warned of further sanctions unless Ankara hands over the detained minister. The currency has lost nearly 40 percent of its value against the dollar this year, hit by Ankara\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}