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Turkey’s lira slid almost 1% on Monday to weaken past 21 per dollar, in a shaky initial reaction to the appointment of highly-regarded Mehmet Simsek as finance minister, Reuters reported.

The lira hit 21.1 to the dollar in thin trade during the Asian daytime, not far above a record low of 21.8 made last week.

Simsek won markets' confidence as finance minister and deputy prime minister between 2009-2018 and his appointment is seen signalling a return to more orthodox policy. He said on Sunday there was no choice but to return to "rational ground".

The lira , under pressure since before May elections, weakened as far as 21.18 against the dollar from 20.9 on Friday and is nearly 12% weaker so far this year. It briefly spiked to a record low of 21.8 on May 31.

Data on Thursday showed central bank net forex reserves had dropped to their lowest level on record on May 26, standing at negative $4.4 billion, as it sought to counter the foreign exchange demand.

Simsek's appointment is seen as a signal that President Tayyip Erdogan's newly-elected government is moving away from unorthodox interest rate cuts in the face of high inflation that sent the lira on its long decline.

Turkey's dollar-denominated government bonds rose as much as 1.1 cents and the cost of insuring against a Turkish debt default fell, with Credit Default Swaps dropping to 541 basis points from Friday's closing level of 550 bps, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed.