Turks Hoard Billions in Gold as Trust in Banks Fades

People in Turkey are hiding an astonishing amount of wealth at home, and it's all in gold. Estimates suggest around 5,000 tons of gold, worth between $600 billion and $640 billion, is stashed away in private homes, safe boxes, and mattresses. This phenomenon has been going on for decades and is rooted in the country's history of economic instability.

The tradition of keeping physical assets, or 'yastık altı', as the Turks call it, is deeply ingrained in Turkish culture. It's not just a quirk; it's a rational survival tactic born from painful experiences with inflation, currency devaluation, and banking system shocks.

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek and other policymakers are frustrated by this 'idle capital', arguing that it weakens the national economy and hinders monetary policy. They want to mobilize this wealth into the banking system to boost official reserves. However, their efforts have been met with resistance from citizens who trust paper money even less than they trust banks.

Economists like Selva Demiralp point out that this behavior is logical, as people are securing themselves against chronic economic instability by holding onto tangible assets. Gold remains the ultimate line of defense for everyday Turks, who have been burned by repeated failures of the paper currency.