Word: lira
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...into an unusual rescue mission of the mark. The two central banks each sold $500 million in dollars at midweek to prop up the weakening West German currency. In Zurich, the Swiss franc dropped into a two-year trough of 1.95 to the dollar, and in Milan the Italian lira plunged to a record low of 1,019 against the dollar. At the same time, the declining value of gold pushed bullion to $500.50 an ounce at week's end, or a little more than half the all time peak of $850 an ounce reached one year...
...Before it began to recover last week, the mark slumped to a low of 51.2? against the dollar, a prolonged slide from its high of 58.8? last January. It was also slipping against such onetime weaklings as the British pound, the French franc and even the Italian lira...
...economic measures, however, were noticeably less popular. To cut consumption, the government raised prices for heating oil and gasoline by as much as 20%, and the Turkish lira, already devalued 66% earlier this year, probably will be devalued even further. The hopeful sign, on the other hand, was that the regime's tight new controls seemed to be winning the confidence of Turkey's Western financial backers. Two U.S. loans totaling $145 million that had been negotiated by the Demirel government went ahead on schedule; Deputy Prime Minister Ozal flew to Washington to sign the notes...
...Britain is far better off than Italy, whose current 21.7% rate tops European Community countries. Among the main causes of Italy's price explosion: a formidable budget deficit, an overvalued lira and an automatic wage-indexing system that only exacerbates the problem...
...dramatic measure was yet another devaluation of the lira, this time by nearly 50%; since last January, the value of Turkey's basic currency unit has fallen from 25 to the dollar to 70. Demirel also served notice on Turkey's sluggish, over-manned state enterprises, which account for more than half of the country's industrial production, that they would have to operate under market conditions. Last year government payments for public sector deficits accounted for one-third of the national budget and were a major factor in the soaring inflation rate. To raise foreign exchange...