The collapse of the Turkish lira

Turkish Lira collapse has Europe worried and Erdogan fighting Trump

the Duran

Moscow based Financial Analyst Eric Kraus and The Duran’s Alex Christoforou examine the collapse of the Turkish Lira, and if contagion is something that should worry the fragile economy of the EU and the petrodollar hegemony of the United States.

According to Zerohedge (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-0... when you thought Turkey's moment of agony couldn't get any worse, it got much worse, when watching the collapse of the Turkish Lira and sensing perhaps that Erdogan's end is near, President Donald Trump blindsided the NATO member state with a tweet, announcing that he is doubling Turkey's steel and aluminum tariffs to 50% and 20%, respectively. Why? Because as he said "Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time!"

Friday’s Lira collapse came after the Financial Times reported that supervisors at the European Central Bank are concerned about exposure of some of Europe’s biggest lenders to Turkey, including chiefly BBVA, UniCredit and BNP Paribas. The FT reported that along with the currency’s decline, the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism has begun to look more closely at European lenders’ links with Turkey.

Zerohedge notes that the moves also came after the US showed no signs of lifting crippling sanctions despite the visit of a Turkish delegation to the US capital.

According to the FT, the ECB is concerned about the risk that Turkish borrowers might not be hedged against the lira’s weakness and begin to default on foreign currency loans, which make up about 40% of the Turkish banking sector’s assets.

And while it does not yet view the situation as critical, it sees Spain’s BBVA, Italy’s UniCredit and France’s BNP Paribas, which all have significant operations in Turkey, as particularly exposed, according to two people familiar with the matter