Finance ministry officials deny swap deals reached with Japan, UK

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Turkey's swap negotiations with many countries are continuing, including trade in local currencies, and reports of deals reached with Japan and the United Kingdom are not true, Treasury and Finance Ministry officials said on May 19.

As soon as concrete results emerge during the talks, the necessary information will be provided, state-run Anadolu Agency cited officials as saying.

Turkey has been in talks to establish swap lines with members of G20, with more than one swap line possible, the country's Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said early May.

"We are doing one-to-one swap negotiations with G20 countries with which we have a trade deficit and a free trade agreement," Albayrak said in a closed-door online meeting with international investors on May 6.

He also said Turkey did not plan to negotiate swap lines with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

There is optimism for possible swap deals to be reached with foreign banks, helping the Turkish Lira recover against the U.S. dollar after the currency hit an all-time low of 7.27 on May 7.

The lira rallied for an eighth straight day on May 18 and strengthened as far as 6.83 against the dollar, its strongest level since mid-April. At 3:45 p.m. May 19, it stood at 6.82, compared with a close of 6.88 a day earlier.

Last week, officials told Reuters that Turkey’s government had appealed to foreign allies in an urgent search for funding, as it prepared defences against what analysts fear could be a second currency crisis in as many years.

The officials said Treasury and Central Bank officials have held bilateral talks in recent days with counterparts from Japan and the United Kingdom on setting up currency swap lines, and with Qatar and China on expanding existing facilities.