Turkey provided its commercial banks the option of meeting a portion of their Turkish lira reserve requirements with alternatives, said Erica Rannestad, commodity analyst with CPM Group.
The IMF-induced lira collapse of early 2001 would have been infinitely more injurious to Turkey's economy if not for the informal dollarization already in effect--about half the transactions in Turkey are denominated in greenies.
What Turkey has is a central bank that has brought it to the abyss with a disastrous move to float the lira, resulting in a harmful devaluation that has destroyed banks and businesses.