Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Berat
Albayrak played a straight bat in London meetings with investors amid international jitters over the Turkish currency crisis, September 4 news agency reports indicated.

Albayrak, the son-in-law of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan—widely suspected of using populist unorthodox economics to stop Turkey’s central bank addressing the Turkish lira’s (TRY’s) meltdown with the radical rate hikes the market consensus says is required—met around a dozen investors, which manage approximately $15 trillion in assets, in separate meetings in the Turkish ambassador’s London residence, Anadolu Agency reported.

Steering clear of potential hot-button issues, Albayrak refrained from making comments about the future shape of monetary policy beyond central bank statements, according to one investor who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity as the meetings with the finance minister were confidential.

Albayrak’s comments were characterised as conventional, in contrast to Erdogan’s views—relayed to journalists and investors when the president visited London in advance of the late June snap elections, causing a good deal of shock on the markets—that high interest rates cause high inflation and that he should seek to get more involved in monetary policy making.

Albayrak reaffirmed support for the central bank’s independence but traders won’t buy the line that the regulator has a free hand in setting monetary policy until it starts to deliver more conventional rate-setting against a backdrop of an overheating economy that is now possibly set for a deep recession.

The TRY has weakened by around 43% against the dollar this year. The central bank indicated higher rates will be adopted at its September 13 policy meeting after data released on September 3 showed the tanking lira drove annual inflation to 17.9% in August, the highest rate seen in 15 years. “The monetary stance will be adjusted at the September monetary policy committee meeting in view of the latest developments,” the central bank said in a statement.

Markets, however, remain sceptical that the rate-setters will provide a hike anything like what most analysts say is necessary.