Erdogan converts own assets into Turkish lira: spokesman

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan converted all of his personal assets held in foreign currency into Turkish lira after he urged citizens to buy the embattled national currency and limit its losses, the presidential spokesman said Thursday.

However presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin stopped short of saying how much the president had changed.

"Friends, from the day (December 2) our president made this call, all of the foreign currency in his account was converted into Turkish lira," Ibrahim Kalin told reporters in Ankara.

"To expect... that the president would start a campaign like this and then not even to take part.. is a fool's errand."

Erdogan earlier this week urged citizens to change foreign currency held "under their pillow" last week into gold or lira, in a national drive after the lira lost some 10 percent in value over the last month.

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu claimed this week Erdogan had $200,000 in a bank account. Kalin made no reference to this.

Erdogan's call prompted small business owners to offer incentives to customers who could prove they had changed hard currency into lira.

Meanwhile, several state institutions have also begun converting assets into lira and carrying out transactions in the Turkish currency.

"A national struggle for the Turkish Lira," was the headline in the pro-government Yeni Safak daily on Thursday.

But despite the huge interest, economists have cast doubt on whether the measures will have any major effect.

The lira has been hit not just by domestic concerns such as slower growth but also the prospect of tighter monetary policy in the US.

After a rally earlier this week, the lira on Thursday lost over two percent in value to trade at 3.45 to the greenback.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Thursday also announced stimulus measures for 2017 to boost the fragile economy decided last week after a five-hour meeting of the government's economic coordination committee.

Such measures included 250 billion lira (some $72 billion) available for the private sector as well as vowing to avoid foreign currency contracts unless "absolutely necessary".