Despite inflation woes that overwhelm Turkey, the country announced a plan of testing central bank digital currencies in 2021 as we can see more today in our latest crypto news.
As the country struggles with the skyrocketing consumer prices and the inflation rates in the double digits, according to the announcement by the Turkey Parliament Central Bank governor Naci Agbal, the country plans to research and test central bank digital currencies and these tests will begin in the latter half of 2021:
“There is an R&D project initiated on digital money. Currently the conceptual phase of this project has been completed. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021.”
While the announcement came as quite a surprise to some crypto users, Turkey is researching a possible CBDC since last year. as we reported previously, the 2021 rollout of the digital Lira will actually come as a delay in November of 2019 according to the Turkish president Recep Erdogan who announced that tests for the digital Lira system will be completed by the end of 2020. The progress on a CBDC comes as the country’s central bank grappled with high inflation to about 14%. Agbal also was appointed as the central bank head last month and said that the bank is determined to lower inflation and to meet the end target of 9.4%.
Turkey was reported to be among the most active countries in the world for crypto assets with 20% of the population holding digital money but according to new research, many people turn to Bitcoin and despite inflation woes, people will most likely believe more in CBDCs rather than the crashing Lira.
As we reported previously, As President Erdogan noted, the government should finish testing the national central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2020 but it seems now that they are late. The country’s national blockchain-based digital lira is planned to be issued by the Central Bank in accordance with the 2020 Annual Presidential Program. Speaking of, the Presidential Program specifies that the first trials of the digital lira should be conducted and finalized by the end of 2020. This comes along with a document that was published by Turkey and its official national publication Resmi Gazete on November 4.
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