The Turkish lira fell to a historic low against the US dollar, FT reported.

The lira fell 1.3 % against the dollar after the Turkish banking regulator tried to curb currency speculation, making it difficult for foreign investors to obtain lira. At some point, the lira was trading at 7.16 per dollar, before reaching 7.15.

The fall occurred ahead of the speech of the Turkish finance minister Berat Albayrak to foreign investors.

“In our view, today’s Albayrak conference call will be key to measure the central bank’s reaction function and . . . the strength of any potential policy response,” Citigroup analysts said in a note, adding that they continued to expect a weaker lira in the medium term.

Ankara has been fighting for a long time to prevent the fall of the lira.

Efforts have intensified in recent weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic put pressure on emerging market currencies and presented problems in countries like Turkey, which have great foreign financing needs and are considered vulnerable.

Traders say state-owned banks sold billions of dollars in the open market on behalf of the central bank in an attempt to support the lira. This move has seriously affected the country's foreign exchange reserves.

Meantime, the authorities took measures aimed at making it more difficult for foreign investors to bet on a drop in currency. The banking regulator has reduced the limit on the volume of currency swaps and other similar operations that Turkish banks can perform with foreign counterparties.