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The Turkish lira: worth less and less
Photo: MURAD SEZER / REUTERS
Because of Twitter in court: Because they had already predicted the decline in value of the Turkish lira on the social network in 2018, 38 people are indicted in Istanbul.
They are accused of having shared "provocative posts," reported the news portal T24.
According to a lawyer, they are said to have prophesied, among other things, a decline in the value of the lira against the US dollar from seven to ten.
They weren't wrong - you can now get more than eleven lira for one dollar.
There are also two journalists among the defendants.
On a trial day originally planned for Thursday, the judge surprisingly did not appear, the lawyer announced via Twitter.
Previously, the national currency had fallen again to a record low - even lower than assumed in the tweets three years ago.
The Turkish judiciary is closely monitoring posts on social networks.
Anyone who criticizes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan risks imprisonment.
The social media was seen as the last room for open criticism.
Because a large part of the media is under state control;
numerous journalists were jailed for making critical contributions.
Controversial view of the key rate and inflation
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The forecasts in the tweets are by no means absurd for many experts - many economists have long criticized the Turkish president's monetary policy.
Erdoğan takes the view, contrary to current economic theory, that high interest rates cause inflation instead of combating it.
Only yesterday the Turkish central bank cut the key interest rate again, from 16 to 15 percent, the third cut in three months.
The high rate of inflation, currently almost 20 percent, should be viewed as "temporary".
At the same time, the government is finding it increasingly difficult to enforce the low interest rate policy: Erdoğan had fired the last three heads of the central bank because there had been differences in monetary policy.
jlk / dpa
