Unhappy fallout from the problems of Erdogan and the Turkish government is the drop in the value of the Turkish lira, for which the somewhat ironic abbreviation is TRY. In the past six months the dollar has increased 31% against the lira and the euro 26%. In the past year electricity has gone up 21% and petrol 20%. Small business owners are desperate. Rents and vehicles are priced in foreign currency but people are paid in lira. We did notice yesterday that there was a significant difference at the restaurant in paying in lira versus euros, the latter making the meal quite a bit more expensive, and presumably giving the restaurateurs a fair profit on the currency exchange if not on the meal. Fortunately for us, if not them, we had Turkish lira.
