Turkish president Erdoğan mocks the UK's pound and says the currency has 'blown up', even as the Turkish lira faces its own economic crisis

• Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan mocked the British pound's meltdown.
• "The pound has blown up," Erdoğan said, per Bloomberg and CNBC, citing CNN Turk.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan may have a longstanding economic crisis on his hands, but that isn't stopping him from mocking the UK pound, which hit a record low against the US dollar on Monday.

"The pound has blown up," said Erdoğan in Ankara on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg and CNBC, citing a CNN Turk interview.

The British pound crashed to a historic low against the greenback on Monday after the UK government announced radical tax cuts aimed at shoring up the economy. However, the move sparked fears of runaway inflation that could in turn spur faster rate hikes, which could then hit the UK economy.

"They were bragging about the pound on how valuable they are against this and that," Erdoğan said, per Bloomberg. "But we got the news today that they blew up."

British Prime Minister Liz Truss — who took office on September 5 — defended her economic plan on Thursday, saying "controversial and difficult decisions" are required to boost the economy, the BBC reported.

Turkey's Erdoğan, who has been in office since 2014, is a proponent of a controversial theory — that lower interest rates will drive down inflation. Economists generally hold the opposite view. Erdoğan's economic policies are partly why the country has been in an economic crisis since 2018, with its currency down 44% in 2021.

On Thursday, the Turkish lira tanked to a fresh record low after Erdoğan advised the country's central bank to cut interest rates even though inflation hit 80% in August.