Turkey dollar bonds rally as new finance minister spurs hope

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) – Turkey’s dollar-denominated government bonds were up as much as 1.1 cents and on course for a fifth straight session of gains on Monday, after the appointment of Mehmet Simsek as the country’s new finance minister.

Simsek, 56, won markets’ confidence during terms as finance minister and deputy prime minister between 2009 and 2018. He said on Sunday the country has no choice but to return to “rational ground” in terms of economic policies.

Alongside the rise in bond prices, the cost of insuring against a Turkish debt default on the financial markets fell, with Credit Default Swaps dropping to 541 basis points from Friday’s closing level of 550 bps, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed.

(Reporting by Marc Jones, editing by Karin Strohecker)