200 TL is now pocket money for children

While the purchasing power of the Turkish lira was rapidly melting with inflation skyrocketing as a result of policies implemented by the government, President Tayyip Erdoğan’s distribution of 200 lira, our largest banknote, to children in Berlin, Germany revealed the depreciation of the TL again.

A DÖNER COIN WINNER

By distributing 200 TL to “Germany, which is jealous of Turkey”, President Erdoğan showed that our largest banknote has now become pocket money for children. With 200 lira, which is equivalent to approximately 6.3 euros, children in Germany can only buy 7 packages of an average chocolate bar, which costs 0.89 euros per 100 grams. For 6.3 euros you can buy doner buns or meat rolls, which cost approximately 6 euros. 200 Turkish lira is not enough for a serving of doner kebab, which in Germany costs between 10 and 12 euros. Turkey, whose production and exports are gradually declining and whose economy is focused on privatization and imports, broke inflation records with the AKP government’s policies and drove the depreciation of the Turkish lira to the top. The decline, which accelerated especially with the transition to the “Turkey-specific” presidential system on July 9, 2018, entered a period where the loss grew exponentially with the “New Economic Model” implemented until the general elections held in last May. Today, with the rapid rises of the dollar and the euro, only Ataturk’s portrait remains valuable in the Turkish lira.

President Tayyip Erdoğan distributed 200 lira, our largest banknote, to children in Berlin, Germany.

HE SAID ‘200 LIRA’

In fact, this is not the first time that Erdoğan has revealed the huge depreciation of the Turkish lira. On March 18, 2022, at the opening ceremony of the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, Erdoğan said “200 lira” about the bridge toll at that time and admitted the depreciation in TL.

The basket of 200 TL in 2009 is now filled with 2,174 TL

There are mountains between the purchasing power of 200 TL on January 1, 2009, when it entered circulation, and the current purchasing power. According to the Central Bank’s inflation calculator, we can buy a shopping cart that was bought for 200 lira in January 2009 for 2,174 lira today. This change in approximately 15 years corresponds proportionally to 987 percent. In other words, today we can only fill the basket that cost 200 TL in 2009 for 2,174 TL.

They were 94 euros, reduced to 6 euros.

On January 1, 2009, when it entered circulation, the 200 lira banknote had a euro equivalent of 94 euros, which at that time was equivalent to 2.13 TL. Today it costs approximately 6.3 euros. The euro, which rose to 31.42 TL, reveals the magnitude of the loss of the Turkish lira. Contrary to the government’s statements that “Europe is jealous of us”, this image reveals the state of a country that is becoming poorer day by day. While Turkey has a big advantage over European countries with its October inflation of 61.36 percent, Germany’s October inflation is 3.8 percent.