The lira drops to a record $20 on the dollar ahead of the second round of elections

ISTANBUL, May 26 (Reuters) – The Turkish lira fell to a record low of 20 to the dollar on Friday ahead of this weekend’s second round of presidential elections, which will determine whether Tayyip Erdogan remains in office.

By 09:55 Moscow time, the lira was down 0.3% to 19.99 to the dollar after trading at 20 during the session. The Turkish currency has lost 6.4% since the beginning of the year.

During the election period, demand for the currency surged in anticipation of a further decline in the value of the lira, which lost 44% in 2021 and 30% in 2022.

Turkey’s central bank’s net foreign exchange reserves fell for the first time since 2002 to -$151.3 million on May 19, according to official figures published on Thursday.

The original message in English is available at the code: (Daren Butler and Nevzat Devranoglu)