Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The lira fell against the dollar, heading for the longest losing streak since a financial crisis in 2001, prior to the publication of trade data for August that is expected to show the deficit widened.

The lira declined 0.3 percent to 1.8582 per dollar at 9:34 a.m. in Istanbul, heading for the fifth-straight month of declines.

The August trade deficit is expected to grow to $7.1 billion from $6.9 billion in the same month of last year, according to the median estimate of eight economists in a Bloomberg survey. The data will be published by the statistics office at 10 a.m. in Ankara.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Bentley in Istanbul at mbentley3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Aydan Eksin at aeksin@bloomberg.net