Turkey’s beleaguered currency breached 6.24 against the dollar in Thursday trade, its lowest level in eight months amid deep market uncertainty worsened by the recent announcement of new elections for the city of Istanbul.
Credit default swaps, or the cost of insuring exposure to Turkish debt, spiked 11 basis points (bps) in one day to reach 483 bps, similar to levels seen ahead of Turkey’s local elections in late March, Reuters reported, citing IHS Markit. Dollar bonds for the country of 80 million fell across the curve.