Unless the Minister of Treasury and Finance or the Governor of the Central Bank is suddenly dismissed, as it happened before, and the current ‘lacking’ economic program continues to be implemented, inflation in Türkiye could reach 40 percent by the end of 2024 and around 30 percent by mid-2025. Even if this happens, Türkiye will
I have no intention of targeting Mehmet Şimşek, the Minister of Treasury and Finance. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members are already doing that enough. Despite the defeat in the March 31 elections, they act as if President Tayyip Erdoğan wasn’t the sole decision-maker and they had done everything right, still claiming, “If we
The Central Bank of Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) which sold foreign currency from its reserves to prevent the US dollar from appreciating further against the Turkish lira (TL) before the March 31 elections, is now buying US dollars from the market to prevent the TL from appreciating too much against the dollar. According to Central
In a bid to curb surging inflation and restore fiscal discipline, Türkish Finance Ministry unveiled an extensive savings plan aimed at reining in public spending. Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek announced a new “Public Savings Plan” on May 13 at a joint briefing. The savings plan comes as Türkiye
The most important outcome expected from the May 13 visit of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Ankara as the guest of President Tayyip Erdoğan will be to avoid any unpleasantness. Yes, a series of protocols and agreements are on the table to fulfill the “Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good Neighborliness” signed by
President Tayyip Erdoğan is using the constitutional amendment as a smokescreen to obscure and distract attention from the major problems ahead. On the night of April 28, days before Erdoğan’s meeting with CHP leader Özgür Özel, Chief Legal Advisor Mehmet Uçum published the text “What could be the main principles of the new constitution”, which
The local elections are over. Not as the Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan intended, but as opposition CHP leader Özgür Özel wanted. Yet Erdoğan still has an economic crisis ahead of him. The way out of this crisis is the Medium Term Program (MTP) he entrusted to the Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek. The
The World Bank has been on the agenda in Türkiye for two reasons nowadays. First, because it decided to provide Türkiye with US$ 18 billion in project financing for the period 2024-2028, and second, because of the news that half of this financing will be made available on the condition that Syrian refugees and LGBTQ+
The March 31 local elections in Türkiye marked the most severe defeat for the incumbent AKP in its 20-year reign. This voter backlash was a belated response to a decade of policy missteps that severely disrupted economic stability, especially after September 2021. In the run-up to the general elections in May 2023, the government opened
The Turkish Central Bank’s (CBRT) Monetary Policy Committee (PPK) increased the policy rate by 500 base points from 45 percent to 50 percent at its March 21 meeting. In the statement made by the PPK, which convened under the chairmanship of Central Bank Governor Fatih Karahan, it was stated that it was decided to increase