Turkey's Election Angst Is Driving Up Demand for Gold Coins
- Gold priced in Turkish lira is now the highest on record
- Shopkeepers at the Grand Bazaar say coin demand is rising
Customers browse gold in the window of a store in a shopping arcade at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.
Photographer: Kerem Uzel/Bloomberg
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With just a month until elections, shopkeepers at Turkey’s biggest bazaar say they’re seeing a jump in demand for gold coins.
“Turkish people have an interesting behavior -- they buy gold when the prices are rising, they think it’s gonna rise more,” said Gokhan Karakan, 32, who runs a gold exchange office in the heart of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. “People think there is a trend here and choose to buy gold until uncertainty is out of the way.”