Alwaght- Thousands of people from Bulgaria and the Balkans to the Turkish border province of Edirne for shopping everything from underwear to walnuts at a fraction of their cost back home, AFP reported.
Turkey's beleaguered lira has crashed under the weight of an unusual economic experiment Erdogan is conducting in a bid to boost support before elections due by mid-2023.
Erdogan has pushed the central bank to slash interest rates in fervently-held belief that this will finally cure Turkey's chronic inflation problem.
It has -- as economists had universally predicted -- done the exact opposite.
Consumer prices are climbing at an annual rate of more than 20 percent.
Some economists think this pace could accelerate in the coming months.
The lira has shed a third of its value since the start of November alone.
It was beginning to lose five percent a day until Erdogan announced new currency support measures Monday that managed to suspend the slide.
Erdogan is betting that a cheap lira will create exports-driven growth that puts Turkey on a path followed by China during an economic transformation that pulled millions out of poverty and created a new middle class.
He championed the poor when bringing his Islamic-rooted party to power against all odds in 2002.
Erdogan then surprised many by opening Turkey up to foreign investment and marshalling nearly a decade of vigorous growth.
