Turkey on Saturday launched a new currency by dropping six zeros from the old one, in a sign of progress in its decades-long struggle with inflation. No major problems were reported after the new Turkish lira went into circulation early Saturday, although credit cards were unusable for about five minutes while the transition to the new currency was made. Under the new system, 1,000,000 Turkish lira (worth about US$0.75 or ¤0.55) is equivalent to 1 new Turkish lira. The old currency will also remain in circulation throughout the year. The move comes as the government has made important progress in reducing inflation, which ran in the double digits for decades. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan withdrew the new currency from a bank machine early Saturday and said he was happy Turkey had been rescued from "the shame" of the old system. He later went grocery shopping with the new money, and received change that included kurus, the Turkish equivalent of a cent, which had been dropped years ago because of inflation. The economic stabilization comes as Turkey pushes for membership in the European Union, which agreed last month to extend membership talks to the mainly Muslim country. Turkey hopes the new currency will ease foreign investment in the country, which boasted the world's largest bank note _ 20,000,000 lira, worth only about US$15 (about 11 euros.) Introducing a new currency has been a Turkish goal for years, but the government was only able to move forward now that inflation is projected to run about 8 percent this year.
