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Apple halts product sales in Turkey amid rampant inflation crisis
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 3:09 pm

Apple has halted sales in its online store in Turkey in response to a worsening inflation crisis in the country. While Apple has not commented on this situation publicly, it appears the company has halted sales in Turkey due to the inflationary crisis.

Inflation in Turkey is nearly 20%, while the country’s lira currency has plummeted by as much as 15% today.

Natasha Turak for CNBC:

Turkey’s lira crashed to a record low of 13.44 to the dollar on Tuesday, a level once unfathomable and well past what was just last week deemed the “psychological” barrier of 11 to the dollar.

“Insane where the lira is, but it’s a reflection of the insane monetary policy settings Turkey is currently operating under,” Tim Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at Bluebay Asset Management, said in a note in response to the news.

The sell-off was triggered after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended his central bank’s continued contentious interest rate cuts amid rising double-digit inflation. He labeled the move as part of an “economic war of independence,” rejecting calls from investors and analysts to change course.

Inflation in Turkey is now near 20%, meaning basic goods for Turks — a population of roughly 85 million — have soared in price and their local currency salaries are severely devalued.

For perspective, at this time in 2019, the lira was trading at roughly 5.6 to the dollar. And that was already making news, as it was a dramatic drop in value from the mid-2017 level of 3.5 to the dollar.

Turkey’s currency has been in a downward slide since early 2018, thanks to a combination of geopolitical tensions with the West, current account deficits, shrinking currency reserves, and mounting debt — but most importantly, a refusal to raise interest rates to cool inflation.

MacDailyNews Take: Once again, healthy economies, consumer confidence, and consumer spending are essential to Apple in every market in which it operates, lest it cease to operate.

https://macdailynews.com/2021/11/23/apple-halts-product-sales-in-turkey-amid-rampant-inflation-crisis/