HORASIS Global Meeting was held in Gaziantep with the participation of Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, international investors and senior managers.
In his presentation on the outlook of the Turkish economy, Şimşek talked about the macro challenges of the economy, solution-oriented policies and investment opportunities in Turkey.
Pointing out that the weak growth of trading partners, global interest rates that will remain at high levels for a long time, increasing energy prices and the strong dollar are the global challenges they face, Şimşek emphasized that the fight against inflation is their most important priority.
Şimşek stated that tight monetary policy, selective credit and quantitative tightening steps were put into effect for disinflation.
"Earthquake expenditures caused a temporary deterioration in the budget balance. It is important to improve public financial balance by establishing fiscal discipline," Şimşek said.
Pointing out that revenue and expenditure policies that will restore fiscal discipline have been implemented, Şimşek said that the budget deficit is aimed to be below the Maastricht Criterion of 3 percent at the end of the program period.
“FOREIGN INVESTORS INTEREST TOWARDS OUR COUNTRY HAS INCREASED”
Stating that Turkey's century-old growth average is 4.8 percent and the last 20-year average is 5.4 percent, Şimşek made the following evaluations:
"However, recently there has been a need to rebalance the composition of growth. Despite increasing tourism revenues, strong domestic demand and high gold imports have recently negatively affected the current account deficit. An improvement in the current account deficit will be observed with gold imports expected to rebalance and normalize. In addition, our natural gas and oil production potential will meet some of our energy needs in the coming period. Foreign investor interest in our country has increased recently. A significant financing opportunity will be provided from abroad. Monetary and fiscal policy practices will be supported by comprehensive structural reforms in the coming period."