ANKARA: Miliions of Turks will lose their status as billionnaires on as the world's biggest banknote, the 20m-lira bill (worth just under $16), is formally declared dead.

The other day Turkey adopted a new currency, the new Turkish lira, or YTL, replacing notes which for years had symbolised economic upheaval.

"Psychologically, and economically, this is an immensely important event," the Finance Minister, Kemal Unakitan, told the Guardian. "It proves that after years of hyperinflation our economy has finally stabilized." Under the old system monthly salaries were counted in billions while even the shortest taxi ride could set clients back five to 10 million.

With budgets quoted in quadrillions, bureaucrats faced the mind-boggling task of trading in figures that frequently challenged electronic calculators. The Turkish gross national product is estimated at around 424 quadrillion lira, or 424,000,000,000,000,000.

Until the other day, cartoonists often had a field day depicting the plight of ordinary Turks and tourists who invariably needed wads of cash for the simplest transaction.

"When I was a student back in the early 60s one dollar was worth nine Turkish Lira," Mr Unakitan said. "After years of chronic inflation, the dollar is around 1.4m Turkish Lira."

One new Turkish Lira will equal one million old Turkish lira and will amount to approximately euros 0.55, although both currencies will circulate until the end of 2005. In recent months, state mints have worked overtime to produce 1.2bn new coins.

The YTL will also include kurus, which disappeared from circulation in the 80s. There will be 100 kurus to the YTL. Turkey's government introduced the new system after drastically reducing inflation as part of an austerity program backed by the International Monetary Fund. -Dawn/The Guardian News Service.