Turks hunt for vanishing drugs in currency crisis

Turks hunt for vanishing drugs in currency crisis

ISTANBUL: Fatih Yuksel is one of thousands of Turks rushing from one pharmacy to another in search of imported drugs that are disappearing as quickly as the lira is losing value. “Sometimes I have periods where I don’t have the drugs I need and my illness gets worse. I suffer pains,” said the 35-year-old, who has been taking pills to relieve a rare autoimmune disorder known as Behcet’s syndrome, for the past nine years.

“It can be hard but I have to work,” said the shop attendant. Turks have been rattled by a currency collapse that accelerated when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month launched a self-declared “economic war of independence” that defies conventional market theory. The veteran Turkish leader is trying to fight spiraling inflation by bringing down borrowing costs-the exact opposite of what countries usually do in similar situations.

The results have been frightening for people such as Yuksel. The Turkish currency has lost more than 40 percent of its value since the start of November alone. A lira could buy 13 US cents in January. It was worth less than half that this month.

The crisis has wiped out the value of people’s savings and made basic goods prohibitively expensive,