(Bloomberg) -- Turkey’s central bank sold foreign exchange for the third time this month, helping to arrest the lira’s slide closer to the 14-per-dollar mark.

The monetary authority said in a statement it intervened in the market because of “unhealthy” price formations, echoing language used by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to describe a renewed selloff in the currency. The lira briefly reversed losses before going back to trade 0.3% lower at 13.8252 per U.S. dollar as of 2:02 p.m. in Istanbul. 

The move came after the Turkish currency weakened as much as 1.2% to 13.9548 Friday, and was near the levels at which the central bank intervened twice earlier this month. 

The currency has weakened 38% since the central bank started cutting borrowing rates in late September, acting upon Erdogan’s persistent demand for lower rates. Policy makers have lowered the one-week repo rate by 400 basis points to 15% this year, even as inflation climbed to 21.31% in November, a three-year high.

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