By Ahmet Abdulaziz ….
As I am writing these lines the US Dollar has set up a new record against the Turkish Lira, by crossing the 4.9 bar. Will it cross the 5TL limit, is a question that no one can answer right now. But as things are turning up slowly, over last few months, in all probability the dollar would continue heading upward.
In Cyprus however, apart from the Dollar, we all are concerned with the Pound Sterling and Euro too. Here generally the 
trade of properties has been done in Sterling, whereas lately cars have started being sold in Euro also along with Sterling. So one way or another, the lives of a large majority of the local public are passing through a tense and tragic period, as we see the Turkish Lira plunging further low with passage of time. All of us who are being paid in Turkish Lira are fast losing financial strength. The money in our hands (Turkish Lira) is simply evaporating . Everyday we are trying to curtail our expenses, but there is a limit to everything, and that limit is approaching fast. We must think about what is going to happen after a month or two, if the current movement of the foreign currencies persists.
There are too many theories that economists offer to explain why the Turkish Lira is losing value and foreign currencies are going up, but a common person asks about the reason why he has to suffer,
for something for which he had not done anything wrong. The businessman/government etc. are too quick to raise the prices of the goods and commodities to balance their losses, but what about the common salaried employees, who do not see any rise in their salaries in near future.
But even if employees do get an increase in their salaries, usually that increase fails to meet the non-stop price hike. As we all also have experienced in the past, the government employees used to get a periodic rise in their salaries, during to high inflation, but the private sector workers were not getting the wage hike so frequently. The private sector workers suffered more than the public sector workers.
Now once again the demand of increase in salaries is in the air. If the currency rates keep on rising as they are now, there should be a rise in salaries in near future. But will the private sectors also be getting the same increment in their salaries? I doubt it!
