Economist: 'Parity of dollar and euro negative for Turkish economy'

Turkish economist and former Treasury under-secretary Mahfi Egilmez made a very brief but equally striking comment as euro reached parity with the US dollar Tuesday for the first time in 20 years.

Egilmez said on Twitter:

"Euro reaching parity with dollar will have a negative impact on us. Our exports and tourism income are mostly in euros while our imports and foreign debt payments are in dollars."

Egilmez replied to a follower who remarked, "Has anything ever happened in our favor?", saying:

"So many things happened so many times. An incredible excess of liquidity emerged in the world after 2008. Only if we had taken the right steps, we could have attracted all that money. We always want someone to lend us support even when we have done something wrong. This doesn't happen in the real world."

Another follower said: "Is there anything positive for us left in the entire galaxy?"

Egilmez replied:

"We are standing in such a wrong place in such a wrong manner that every stone will eventually hit us. Then we say this is our destiny."

Fall of euro

Euro has went through a dramatic loss in the last five months. In early February it was worth over $1.13. The fall sped up in recent weeks as fear spread that Russia, the European Union's main energy provider, was going to cut off gas flows in retaliation for Western sanctions against Russia's invasion of Ukraine.