ISTANBUL—Turkey’s currency crisis is driving up the cost of food, medicine and other essentials for average Turks, and poses a threat to the country’s banks and large companies if the lira’s slide isn’t arrested, economists said.
The steep drop in the lira, which has lost more than a third of its value to the dollar in eight months, is shaking a Turkish society that had long prided itself as an ascendant economy that rivaled its European neighbors. Ordinary people are now struggling with a decline in their living conditions, with rampant inflation putting pressure on wages and eating into savings.
