Exclusive-European fund giant Amundi dipping toe back into Turkey's lira

LONDON (Reuters) - Amundi, Europe's largest asset manager, has started dipping its toe back into the Turkish lira it says having been impressed by the country's turnaround efforts since its mid-year elections. The Paris-based firm, which has about $2 trillion worth of assets under management, is yet to go all in given the lira's ongoing grind lower but says has taken its first step towards it by reversing long-held bets against the currency. "We have started to cover our underweight in Turkish lira a few weeks ago," Sergei Strigo, Amundi's co-Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income, told Reuters, referring to the process of taking a more positive view on the currency.

Strigo said last week's 500 basis-point interest rate hike to 40% in Turkey was "all very positive" and a sign of its seriousness in tackling its inflation problem. "We are not yet ready to increase the allocation (in the lira) but it is definitely on our radar screen."

(Additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; editing by Elisa Martinuzzi)

By Marc Jones