STORY: Türkiye's central bank reserves record historic high
SHOOTING TIME: Earlier footage
DATELINE: Dec. 1, 2023
LENGTH: 0:01:38
LOCATION: Ankara
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Turkish Central Bank (courtesy of the Turkish Central Bank)

STORYLINE:

The total reserves of the Turkish central bank reached a historic high of 136.49 billion U.S. dollars as of the end of last week, according to the data announced by the bank on Thursday.
   
Among the reserves, 90.99 billion dollars were foreign currency reserves while 45.49 billion were gold reserves.
   
Since May, the bank's total gross reserves surged 38.35 billion dollars, or 38.6 percent. There has been an upward momentum in the bank's reserves since June.
   
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed former banker Hafize Gaye Erkan as central bank governor and Mehmet Simsek as the head of the Treasury and Finance Ministry in June. Both bankers were considered market-friendly figures.
   
The bank had previously implemented a policy of selling dollar reserves as part of its interventions to maintain stable exchange rates.
   
Previously, Erdogan implemented an unconventional monetary policy of lowering interest rates to combat stubborn inflation, which has since been abandoned by the new economic team.
   
The new administration aggressively raised interest rates from 8.5 percent to 40 percent during the June-November period to tame persistent inflation. 

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Ankara.
(XHTV)