Türkiye Strips Six Zeros from Lira in Currency Overhaul

Türkiye unveiled the design of its new currency at a formal ceremony in Ankara on 25 October 2004, two months before the New Turkish Lira (YTL) entered circulation on 1 January 2005.

The reform removed six zeros from a denomination scale that had pushed the largest banknote to 20 million lira and the smallest coin to 25,000 lira. New denominations span one kuruş to 100 YTL. One YTL equals 100 kuruş, reviving a subdivision absent for more than 20 years. All notes carry a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the front and images from Türkiye's cultural and natural heritage on the back, with new anti-counterfeiting features.

Economy Minister Ali Babacan dismissed concerns that merchants would round prices upward, arguing the kuruş's return would curb rather than worsen that tendency. The old and new currencies ran in parallel through 31 December 2005, with banks set to receive the new notes and coins beginning in December 2004.

The redenomination capped a stabilization program backed by a $16 billion IMF loan signed in 2002, which had pulled annual inflation down from above 100 percent in the mid-1990s to roughly nine percent.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.