Russia's suspension of Black Sea grain deal stoked inflation worries and Turkey's lira sank to a new record low.
The Turkish lira slid 0.4% to 26.3 per dollar, touching a fresh record low. Russia on Monday announced it had halted an unprecedented wartime deal allowing the grain to safely flow from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry, a fresh threat to global food security.
Moscow will suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative until its demands to get its own food and fertilizer to the world are met, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. While Russia has long complained that restrictions on shipping and insurance have hampered its agricultural exports, it has shipped record amounts of wheat.
“The Black Sea agreements have de facto ended today,” Peskov told reporters. “Unfortunately, the part of these Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not been implemented so far, so its effect is terminated,” he added.
Turkey on Sunday raised tax on petrol to help to fund a 1.12 trillion lira ($42.2 billion) increase to its 2023 budget after February's earthquakes and the May presidential election sent spending soaring.
The central government budget shortfall in June reached TL 219.6 billion (nearly $8.4 billion), the Treasury and Finance Ministry data showed, seven times the deficit a year earlier. It compared with a TL 118.9 billion surplus the previous month.
The primary deficit, which excludes interest payments, widened to TL 182.3 billion, from TL 18.29 billion a year earlier, according to the data. In the first half, the gap amounted to TL 483.2 billion.
