ISTANBUL -- Turkey is considering a range of new lira-based financial products that the government would guarantee against inflation losses, a top government official told Nikkei Asia.
These would follow up on a scheme launched in mid-December to protect local-currency bank deposits against losses from foreign exchange fluctuations.
Along with new proposals to encourage Turkish households to exchange physical gold stashed under mattresses for certified gold products, the measures are designed to inject fresh blood into the financial system and arrest the depreciation of the local currency.
Goksel Asan, head of finance in the office of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said in an interview Friday that the government is working on various new financial products to put the nation back on track economically and ultimately reach its stated goal of a current-account surplus.
"The Treasury and Finance Ministry is working on inflation-indexed instruments," Asan said. "I do not think that it will be another bank deposit instrument, which would mean competing with the new forex-indexed lira deposits," he said, hinting at bonds without specifying. (BBG)