The Turkish lira fell to nearly 16.2 against the dollar on Wednesday, hitting its weakest level since December as bankers questioned the authorities' ability to stabilize the currency without new sources of foreign exchange, Reuters reported.

The lira has weakened 8% this month and nearly 19% this year, despite costly interventions in which the central bank sold dollars to cushion the blow. The currency fell to 16.1990 and settled at 16.185 at 06:54 GMT.

At the beginning of the year, the lira remained largely stable due to a government scheme that protects lira deposits from depreciation, and the central bank met the foreign exchange needs of the market from its reserves.

But these efforts to keep the currency stable have taken their toll on the reserves of the Turkish Central Bank.

On Tuesday, the cost of insuring Turkey's debt against default jumped to its highest level since the 2008 global financial crisis. IHS Markit data showed that 5-year credit default swaps (CDS) rose to 730 basis points from 704 points.