Turkey Eyes $135 Billion Gold Reserves for Lira Defense

Gold barsPhotographer: Milan Jaros/Bloomberg

Turkey’s central bank is preparing an expanded toolkit to defend the lira from Iran war-related volatility that includes potentially tapping its vast gold reserves, according to people familiar with the matter.

The bank has held discussions about conducting gold-for-foreign currency swap transactions in the London market, the people said, asking not to be named because the deliberations are private.