(Bloomberg) -- The Turkish lira weakened for a ninth day, overtaking Brazil’s real as the worst performer in emerging markets this year.
The currency dropped as much as 0.7% to 8.4843 per dollar Tuesday even as most of its peers advanced. The decline brought its loss this year to almost 30%.
The lira’s nosedive has accelerated since the Turkish central bank last month defied expectations by keeping its key one-week repo rate on hold while continuing to enact stealth measures to raise the cost of borrowing.
The prospect of a Joe Biden victory in the U.S. election is additionally rattling lira traders already concerned over Turkey’s widening current-account deficit, dwindling foreign reserves, geopolitical tensions and rising Covid-19 infections. Biden is seen as likely to take a harder stance against the Turkish government than President Donald Trump over the country’s purchase of a Russian missile-defense system.
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