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Lira Extends Gains Before Investor Call With Finance Minister

Lira Extends Gains Before Investor Call With Finance Minister

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s lira rallied for a third day before an investor call with Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak later Thursday that may provide clues about any further policy action to shore up the country’s battered markets.

The currency climbed as much as 3.9 percent to an almost one-week high of 5.6968 against the dollar, extending a rebound from a record low touched on Monday amid a diplomatic feud with the U.S. The call with Albayrak is due to begin at 4 p.m. local time, according to two people familiar with the matter who declined to be identified.

Lira Extends Gains Before Investor Call With Finance Minister

Authorities have already stepped in with a series of liquidity measures and eased rules on restructuring troubled loans, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured a financial lifeline from Qatar. Still, many say higher interest rates are needed to anchor the currency as inflation shows no signs of easing and as the economy deals with the shock of the market rout.

“The lira is likely to remain extremely volatile in the coming days and weeks,” said William Jackson, the chief emerging-market economist at Capital Economics in London. “Inflation will be higher and the slump in the economy deeper than we had previously expected.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Constantine Courcoulas in Istanbul at ccourcoulas1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ven Ram at vram1@bloomberg.net, Neil Chatterjee, Anil Varma

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