Paid yesterday with €20 at a supermarket, as it’s time to hit the cash point to acquire more Turkish lira. Though have to say that not only have markets been prepared to accept the euro, which is of course reliable hard currency, but they’ve always been pretty fair about the exchange rate as well. Though there may be a bit of opportunism in heavily touristed areas. At the Buyuk Khan in Nicosia a couple of weeks ago we went to pay for coffee and asked the price. One euro fifty. Lira, I said, as that’s what we normally operate in. Twenty lira. In other words the price was fifty percent more in euros, the exchange rate running at roughly 20 lira to the euro. And in a tourist area most people would arrive from the South with euros and not wish to have either the bother of purchasing lira or the inconvenience of having them left over at the end of the day. And the euro price for the coffee was not unreasonable.
The lira is in deep trouble and Turkish President Erdoğan can add being no economist to his many sins. However the commentary on the mostly downward progress of the lira seems equally bizarre at times. So today’s Cyprus Mail (South) is pleased to report that the lira has hit a record low against the US dollar. What it does not seem interested in mentioning is that the pound, the euro and the yen all dropped against the US dollar this week, but this is Cyprus.