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Turkish lira hits record low against U.S. dollar

Xinhua, March 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Turkish lira dropped to a record low against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, sinking down below 2.5710.

The Turkish currency lost around 9 percent of its value since the beginning of 2015.

The Turkish Central Bank (TCB), due to the weakness of the lira, issued a tender of foreign currency purchase.

Experts attributed the sharp decrease in lira partially to the U.S. Federal Reserve System's (FED) uncertainty over hiking the interest rates.

The dollar against a basket of six major currencies reached the record high in 11 years. The dollar index hit 95.570, the highest level since September 2003 on Tuesday.

Investors are waiting for the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision over the interest rates that will be declared on Thursday for the possible tips of the U.S. monetary policy.

Lira's slide comes amid a political row between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and top economic policy makers on the interest rate policy.

Erdogan has been publicly criticizing the head of TCB Erdem Basci over his policies to overcome the high inflation.

Turkey's annual inflation rate has been announced in March at 7.44 percent. TCN targets to lower down the inflation to 5 percent. Endit