Today USD/TRY stands at 6.60 which, a year ago, was fluctuating around 3.40 we are talking about nearly 100 percent appreciation of dollar. What about the countries that are placed in the same equation with Turkey?
While Brazil is struggling with economic and political troubles, Real today stands at a level of 4.15 against the dollar, which was around 3.10 a year ago. In other words, dollar has appreciated by 33 percent against Real. If you ask me, a significant problem for a developing country.
Mexico is seemingly trying to gather its strength back. After the NAFTA conflict with Trump, things seem rather calm in Mexico following the last week reconciliation with America. Standing around 17.90 this time last year, Peso is around 19.40 today. In short, dollar has appreciated against peso by 10%. Not insignificant but a tolerable increase.
Russia was heavily wounded during the sharp fall of oil prices. It only began to gather strength back after ruble’s sharp depreciation. But obviously Russian economy is not working under perfectly healthy conditions. Trying to find its own niche among the newly established balances in the Middle East, Russian ruble os testing today 68.30 today whereas a year ago it was standing around 57.30, which shows that the dollar has appreciated by 20% for the last year. Not lethal but threatening enough.
Meanwhile in the South Africa, things tend to calm down and then suddenly a turmoil surfaces again. Constantly failing to find the balance after Mandela’s death,South African Rand has sharply fallen against the dollar yesterday. Standing around a level of 12.70 a year ago, today dollar is testing 15.40. On a rough calculation, we can say that the dollar has appreciated by more than 20 percent. A pretty troublesome situation considering rand’s recent fall below 11.50.
“Not all currencies of the world lose in value…”
In the meantime, the currencies of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic seem quite stable, even tending to appreciate against dollar.
In short, the problems Turkey is experiencing right now are not solely exclusive to Turkish economy. Besides, the relationship of the abovementioned countries with the EU seem just fine. We cannot deny the fact that Turkish lira stands at the top of the list of the most depreciating currencies against dollar.
There are several reasons for this very situation. But right now we need to discuss the most suitable solutions and start implementing them as soon as possible. It is not possible to derive a solution from the cause of a problem. But if we can admit that there is a problem, I think we would already take the first step towards the final solution.
