ISTANBUL — The Turkish currency crashed to a new record low of 17.16 per U.S. dollar on Friday after the central bank cut the interest rate again.

The lira stood at 16.50 at 2:20 p.m. local time (1120 GMT), after plunging as much as 8 percent against the dollar.

The central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market by selling dollars for the fifth time this month, according to a statement posted on the central bank's website.

Data shows that over 4 billion dollars were sold in the four previous interventions.

The Turkish currency has lost nearly 55 percent in value against the greenback since the start of the year, and the losses expanded during the last couple of months with the central bank's consecutive interest rate cuts.

On Thursday, the bank cut its benchmark one-week repo auction rate by another 100 basis points, from 16 percent to 15 percent. — Agencies