Turkey's insurance fund backs lira

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - The Savings Deposit Insurance Fund of Turkey (TMSF) on Friday decided to convert its dollar denominated deposits worth nearly 1.6 billion Turkish liras ($357 million) into liras throughout June.

"TMSF, having confidence in local currency, has decided to convert its foreign currency portfolio within the deposit insurance reserve in all banks, into Turkish lira," the fund said in a statement.

It noted that recent fluctuations in exchange rates have no economic basis.

In recent months, the lira has been losing ground to the U.S. dollar.