Türkiye’s exports are approaching the $300 billion mark by breaking records every month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Thursday, as the country tries to tackle the economic crisis with a model that combines growth through exports, jobs, production and a current account surplus.
The President also said that thanks to the measures taken by the government, the negative impact of inflation will diminish from the beginning of the new year.
Erdoğan sent a video message to the Türkiye 2023 Summit and Money Talks organized by Turkuvaz Media Group in Istanbul.
Erdoğan expressed his hope that the summit will be useful, congratulated the media group on the event attended by many notable names and thanked all participants who enriched the program with their ideas, presentations and assessments.
Explaining that the world has been going through a painful process over the past three years, which started with the pandemic and then was complicated by hot conflicts and regional tensions, Erdoğan said that energy, food and commodity prices have reached the highest levels in recent years and the consequent problem of inflation is a problem that all economies face.
Meanwhile, he explained that the classic approach to curbing inflation through interest rate hikes has so far not lived up to expectations, adding that many economies trying to contain inflation with such measures are struggling with job losses and a cost of living crisis were confronted.
Under the country’s economic program, dubbed the “Turkiye Economic Model,” the Turkish government is prioritizing low interest rates to boost exports, production and investment, with the aim of bringing down inflation and turning the country’s chronic current account deficits into surplus transform.
In line with the model, the central bank of Türkiye cut its policy rate, or one-week repo rate, by 150 basis points to 9.0% at its last meeting in November.
The lender said the easing cycle that started in August has come to an end as the current policy rate was assessed as sufficient taking into account rising risks to global demand.
Latest official data showed that price hikes in Türkiye eased in November, suggesting inflationary pressures that have plagued consumers for about a year and a half may finally be easing.
The annual consumer price index (CPI) fell to 84.39% last month, Turkey’s statistical institute (TurkStat) said, ending a 17-month cycle of increases.
It fell from a 24-year high of 85.51% in October, marking the first time annual inflation has eased since May 2021, when the CPI was at 16.6%.
Stressing that Türkiye is one of the countries that has weathered a difficult economic period relatively comfortably thanks to its robust infrastructure and economic model, Erdoğan went on to say, “Our industrial zones, factories and manufacturing bases are working hard. Our roads and highways are full of trucks and lorries transporting loads from our country to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.”
Türkiye’s exports remained buoyant, rising 15.4% to $209.5 billion from January to October this year, according to official data, marking an all-time high in 10 months.
Türkiye has set an export target of US$250 billion for this year after hitting a record US$225 billion in 2021.
Erdoğan also noted that Türkiye has taken a new step by going beyond compensating for losses in the tourism sector, which has been hardest hit by the pandemic, stressing that it has managed to surpass 31 million workers for the first time .
Tourism revenue is vital for Türkiye’s economy to meet its current account surplus targets.
At the end of October, the government raised its end-of-year tourism targets for the second time this year. It now expects 50 million tourists and $44 billion in revenue, up from the 47 million tourists and $37 billion in revenue it set in July and the 45 million arrivals and $35 billion in revenue it plans to estimated earlier in the year.
security of energy supply
The President further expressed that efforts to commission the 540 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas discovered in the Black Sea will continue in order to reduce the country’s energy dependence.
Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, who also gave an online speech at the event, stated that Türkiye has the infrastructure, technical equipment, international knowledge and experience to produce, import natural gas trade and export.
“Our goal is to become a gas trading center where reference gas prices are determined in the region and in the world. Hopefully we’ll finalize our roadmap on this issue towards the end of the year,” he said.
Noting that they look forward to bringing domestic gas to Turkey in 2023 and that nine out of ten wells have been drilled as part of the first phase of work, Dönmez said, “85% of our Filyos Land Gas Processing Facility, which will separate the gas from the sea is complete.”
“I hope that the Sakarya gas field will be the world’s fastest offshore field development project from exploration to initial production,” the minister said.
Dönmez also noted that the 4.6 bcm expansion phase of the Silivri natural gas storage facility has been completed and “hopefully will open next week with the participation of President Erdoğan”.
Aside from investing in renewable energy, Türkiye aims to reduce its dependence on foreign energy and external financing needs to further ease current account pressure by bringing the natural gas discovered in the Black Sea on stream by 2023.
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