TURKEY SOLD 58 TONS OF GOLD IN 2 WEEKS – USD PRESSURE IS REALLY TIGHT
🔹 The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey sold about 58 tons of gold (~8 billion USD) in just 2 weeks – the sharpest decline in 7 years, bringing total reserves down to about 513 tons. Notably, this scale of selling is larger than the outflow from global gold ETFs at the same time → indicating systemic liquidity pressure, not a technical adjustment.
🔹 The incoming cash is used in two directions:
Pledging gold to borrow USD → supplementing short-term foreign currency liquidity
Selling directly to the market → immediate intervention in the USD supply-demand balance
🔹 At the same time, foreign exchange reserves have sharply decreased by about 40 billion USD, down to 175 billion USD, reflecting efforts to protect the lira in the context of:
Rising energy prices (especially oil) → soaring demand for USD imports
Regional tensions (related to Iran) → defensive capital flows shifting to USD
The domestic currency depreciates → exchange rate pressure self-amplifies
🔹 The operational mechanism is quite clear:
Oil prices ↑ → demand for USD ↑ → lira ↓ → forced to sell gold to attract USD and stabilize the exchange rate
🔹 This is not an isolated phenomenon:
Russia has continuously sold gold since 2025 to fund war expenses → supplementing market supply
Poland is considering using gold reserves for defense spending → a signal that “reserve assets” are being transformed into actual liquidity