Kuwait has said that reports it injected KD 500 million ($1.6 billion) to back the floundering Turkish lira are “unfounded”, according to the state-run Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).
In a statement, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Finance said that Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf met with Berat Albayrak, Turkey’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, to discuss Turkey’s economic situation on Sunday night.
The two ministers, however, did not discuss any measures to support the lira – which has fallen 40 percent against the US dollar this year – or any financial or investment decisions.
The Turkish lira has been in a freefall due to concerns of Turkey’s worsening diplomatic spat with the United States, which sanctioned the country over the detention of an American priest.
On Monday, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan accused “economic terrorists” of spreading false reports about the state of the country’s economy.
“They are truly a network of treason,” he reportedly told a gathering of Turkish ambassadors. “We will make those spreading speculations pay the necessary price.”
According to the country’s interior ministry, 346 social media accounts were found to be creating negative perceptions with posts about the lira’s exchange rate.
