Welcome back to my money mutterings. This time I’ll be talking about change, or lack of it!

Spare any Change?

Inflation has always been a problem in Turkey in the past but in recent years the Central Banks policies have brought the rate down dramatically. One of they key changes they made was to introduce the new Turkish Lira – the YTL. By wiping off 6 zeros and introducing small coins they created a currency that could enable lower inflation. What do I mean by that? Well, by introducing new coins price rises could be much lower. For example, the smallest in size and value of coin in use is the 1 korus, so this is the smallest increase that can occur. But the problem is that everyone from the shopkeeper to the bus driver doesn’t recognise the 1 korus and would rather increase prices by 25 or 50 korus each time just like under the old money. Even the Government is guilty of ignoring the poor 1 korus coin too. When they increased the price of a standard loaf of bread they increased it from 25 korus to 30 korus – a 20% increase. Yet, they could have increased it by only 1 korus – a 4% increase. It’s the same on the Dolmus, the price goes up each time by at least 25 korus. No wonder inflation is high!

The only exception appears to be the big supermarkets which price goods using the smallest coins. But the problem here is that if you pay in cash getting the correct change is often impossible. So where’s all the change? I think the Dolmus drivers have it all….

That’s all from me for now.

JC