Foreign trade to give highest support to recognition of Turkish lira's new icon

ANKARA (A.A) - Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan has said the biggest support would be from foreign trade to recognition of the new icon of the Turkish currency. While usage of Turkish lira (TL) had been only $516,6 million foreign trade transactions in 2002, it rose to $16 billion in 2011. The percentage of TL usage climbed from 0.6 in 2002 to 3 percent in 2011. Caglayan said, "as omitting 6 zeros from TL corrected its negative image, now, with the new icon the world will recognize it much more compared to past." According to Caglayan, TL had been used as currency in 186 countries' custom area in 2011. Also 2.5 percent of exports was made over TL last year.