(Bloomberg) -- A Turkish delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal was to meet with U.S. Treasury Department officials in Washington Wednesday after talks at the State Department, according to a person familiar with the plans.
The meetings come as Turkey seeks to stanch an economic meltdown amid fallout from U.S. sanctions imposed on it’s NATO ally over its continued detention of an American pastor.
Onal’s talks with Treasury officials were to follow a 45-minute meeting he held at the State Department with Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, according to the person, who asked for anonymity because the Treasury meeting hadn’t yet been made public.
The sanctions target Turkey’s Minister of Justice Abdulhamit Gul and Minister of Interior Suleyman Soylu, who “played leading roles in the organizations responsible for the arrest and detention of Pastor Andrew Brunson,” the Treasury Department said in a statement. While limited in their direct effect, the penalties added to the winds already buffeting investors and sent markets reeling.
Turkey retaliated with sanctions on two U.S. officials.
The diplomatic row has taken the lira’s losses this year to about 30 percent as shoppers confront soaring prices and companies struggle to service dollar and euro debts.
While investors focus on the Turkey-U.S. talks in Washington for any signs of an easing of diplomatic tensions that added to the lira’s woes, there’s a growing sense that the root of the economy’s ills runs deeper. With double-digit inflation and a current-account deficit seen at 6.4 percent of output this year, investors say the currency may continue to slide unless policy makers commit to tighter monetary and fiscal policy.
(Updates with State Department meeting completed in third paragraph.)
