Economic data is announced every month. However, if there is an increase in export data in the pro-government media, for example, in the announcement of foreign trade data such as imports and exports, only the export-related dimension of foreign trade data is highlighted, imports are either ignored or can be found in the news.
It was announced that a record was broken in exports in May, especially with an increase of 14.4% compared to the previous year, to 21.6 billion dollars, and imports to 34.3 billion dollars with an increase of 16%. Accordingly, in May, the foreign trade deficit was announced as 56.1 billion dollars.
In other words, while highlighting the export figures, the size of the foreign trade deficit was overlooked, the foreign trade deficit increased by 29.5 percent in the January-May period and reached 56.1 billion dollars. In short, this is what it's like to play with numbers. Because in terms of our country, we usually have a deficit in foreign trade.
In other words, our exports lag behind our imports. In this respect, although it is a positive development that we have broken a record in exports, if our exports do not meet our imports, we run a deficit, and we generally try to cover the resulting deficit with foreign debt. As a result, a significant part of our income goes to debt interest and installments in order to return to foreign debt interests in the budget prepared every year. There is a growth that does not contribute to the increase of the welfare level of our people.
If the foreign trade deficit in question has reached 56 billion dollars in a period of 5 months, this fact remains in the middle, and it does not make much sense for us to break growth records. At this point, the need for foreign currency is increasing day by day. While it is being talked about that the Central Bank's foreign exchange reserve has fallen to negative, it is not enough to hide the troublesome point reached by presenting the foreign trade figures unilaterally, only the export section, in order to paint a rosy picture for the society.
At this point, when the news that we broke a record in exports was reflected in the media, draw my attention and I find it useful to convey two news. The first news I mentioned was given in the media under the heading “3.8 million people are under legal follow-up”. The second news was “The profit of the banks for 4 months is 145 billion liras”.
I think these two news stories will be enough to show under what conditions our people are trying to live their lives. Because the number of legal follow-ups is constantly increasing, citizens who cannot live with their normal income are constantly in debt, but after a while they miss the point of the rope and become unable to pay.
As a result, legal proceedings begin. At this point, it means the increase in the debt of the credit cards of the citizens every month, which means that our people are dragged into a debt swamp and their debts to the banks increase as a result, the profits of the banks increase every month.
As a result, the current economic system works for those who have money. In short, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the system transfers what it takes from the poor to the rich. We do not know whether the Council of Ministers formed after the elections will be able to find a solution to the problem in question. However, a large part of the society no longer had the strength to withstand the economic difficulties. Beyond that, we have to see that the depression experienced by our people will not distract the society by highlighting some numbers.