Mubasher: Foreign exchange (FX) reserves in Turkish central bank dropped unexpectedly in March, Bloomberg News reported.

Net international reserves in the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) fell $6.3 billion to $28.5 billion in the two weeks through 15 March, according to data issued on Thursday.

This marked the largest drop since January 2014, when the central bank had to hike interest rates in an emergency meeting to support the Turkish lira (TRY).

The absence of an official explanation for the decline in FX reserves raised speculation that the CBRT pushes to shore up the lira.

“The erosion, which outstrips the Treasury’s $3.8 billion external debt payments scheduled for March, has aroused suspicions that the central bank may be trying to support the Turkish lira,” the news agency said.

It is worth noting that the central bank usually sells foreign currency to energy distributor Botas, which imports natural gas from Russia.

“If the drop in the week of March 15 is not related to Botas, authorities need to explain what happened,” Istanbul-based independent research firm Burumcekci Research and Consulting founder Haluk Burumcekci was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

By 3:22 pm GMT, the USD/TRY pair surged 4.15% to TRY 5.6924.