President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday called on citizens to sell more foreign currency in support of the national economy.
“I thank my people who participated in the campaign of selling foreign currency, but it is not enough. My nation should not tolerate the interest lobby,” Erdoğan told the media on Friday.
Erdoğan also reiterated the importance of trade with Russia, China and Iran in their own currencies and in lira.
In an earlier statement Erdoğan had described the depreciation of the Turkish lira against the US dollar as an international operation targeting Turkey in the aftermath of a July 15 coup attempt.
“You are aware of the game they have been playing since the July 15 coup attempt. They are now trying to finish the coup that failed on July 15 by means of interest rates and foreign currency,” Erdoğan said in Kayseri last week, accusing the Gülen movement of being part of the new attempt as well.
Reiterating his call for lowering interest rates in Turkey in the same statement, Erdoğan said; “Whatever the cost, we have to reduce interest rates. Interest rates must be lowered to pave the way for investment. When we lowered the interest rates to 4.6 percent, they created the Gezi Park protests as a response.”
