ACTION PLAN PREPARED TO EASE MARKETS

ISTANBUL Turkey’s finance minister said Sunday that the government has prepared “an action plan” aimed at easing market concerns that have led to a slump in the value of the nation’s currency.

In an interview with the newspaper Hurriyet, Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak also said the government had no plans to seize foreign currency deposits or convert deposits to the Turkish lira.

Turkey was hit by a financial shockwave this past week as the lira nosedived 14 per cent Friday over concerns about the government’s economic policies and a trade and diplomatic dispute with the United States. Earlier, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned of drastic measures if businesses withdraw foreign currency from banks. Speaking in the northeastern city of Trabzon on Sunday, Erdogan warned business executives to not “rush to banks to withdraw foreign currency.”