Switzerland’s gold exports to Turkey increased by 39 percent in June, compared to the previous month, reaching 13.13 tons of the precious metal, local media reported on Monday.
In 2022 Switzerland, the world’s largest gold refining and transfer center, exported 188 tons of gold to Turkey, valued at 10.1 billion Swiss francs.
The country exported 58.3 tons of gold to Turkey in January 2023. This figure decreased to 44 tons in February and further declined to 10.7 tons in March. In April, there was another sharp drop, with exports reaching 1.5 tons.
Switzerland’s gold exports to Turkey, which were 9.44 tons in May, increased by 39 percent after the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey in May, reaching 13.13 tons in June. During the same period last year, gold exports were 10.14 tons.
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s overall gold exports declined in June.
Turkish media reported in late April that Turkey’s central bank, struggling to stabilize the lira before the May elections, resorted to selling gold to support its rapidly diminishing foreign exchange (FX) reserves.
Between March 3 and April 21, the bank sold 72 tons ($4.7 billion) of gold to shore up reserves, reflecting the urgency with which the bank is trying to maintain the USD-lira exchange rate below 20 lira.
The lira, which traded at 26.9 to the US dollar on Monday, has weakened 30 percent so far this year.
Over the past several years Turkey has been suffering from a deteriorating economy, with high inflation and unemployment, as well as a poor human rights record. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is criticized for mishandling the economy, emptying the state’s coffers and establishing one-man rule in the country where dissent is suppressed and opponents are jailed on politically motivated charges.