The upward trend observed in foreign exchange and gold in recent days was also reflected in the Grand Bazaar. The expectation that prices would rise further after the elections drove up the demand for both foreign currency and gold. It is stated that the daily traffic in the jewelry and foreign exchange bureaus in the Grand Bazaar has doubled compared to a short time ago, and the transaction volumes, which are mainly based on purchases, have increased by nearly 40 percent.
The development led to a decline in the Central Bank’s reserves and an increase in demand in the Grand Bazaar. While bazaar shopkeepers stated that demand increased by 30-40 percent, the development led to an increase of 20 kurus between the interbank market and the Grand Bazaar market in favor of the bazaar. Compared to the last day of last week, the difference, which was 5-6 kurus a week ago, increased to 20 kurus on Friday, February 23.
Demirkan Döviz official stated that there was similar activity before the elections last year and that the demand is expected to continue until after the elections. While the dollar / TRY was close to 31 in the interbank market, it was traded nearly 20 cents lower in the Grand Bazaar at the same hours. The dollar / TRY, which started 2024 at 29,7 , increased by nearly 5 percent and closed last week at 31.
A similar situation was observed in gold demand. Noting that there was activity in both buying and selling on the gold side, bazaar shopkeepers informed that 70 percent of the demand was in the form of buying and 30 percent in the form of selling.On the other hand, it is stated that the decline in the volume of purchases and sales has significantly reduced the transportation with iron crates, which increased in the past years. According to the bazaar shopkeepers, iron crate traffic in the region has declined by 70 percent.
Gram gold, which started the year at TRY 1,960 , exceeded the level of TRY 2,000 with the effect of the increase in the dollar. Nadir Sarrafiye official said that there has been significant activity on both the buying and selling side for a few weeks. Stating that there has been an increase in demand for gram and quarter gold in general, the official says that he expects the high demand observed in gold, as in foreign currency, to continue to increase in the coming days. As of last week, gram gold prices in the region were traded at TRY 2,100 TL for buying and TRY 1,125 for selling.
Increasing demand was also reflected in Mint operations. According to the data of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance General Directorate of Mint and Stamp Printing House, 1 million 826 thousand 950 pieces of quarter gold were printed in January this year. This figure was recorded as the highest quarter gold mintage in the last 7 months.
