president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday a tight interest rate policy will not lower inflation and vowed Turkey will succeed in its “economic war of independence.”
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Erdoğan said he preferred a competitive exchange rate as it brings higher investment and employment.
“I reject policies that will contract our country, weaken it, condemn our people to unemployment, hunger and poverty,” he noted.
The president stressed that the government is committed to doing “the right thing for our country” with an economic policy that he said is focused on investment, production, employment and exports, instead of the “vicious circle of high interest rates-low exchange rates.”
Last Thursday, the country’s central bank cut its policy rate by 100 basis points to 15%, and signaled more easing would come before the end of the year. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has now slashed rates by 400 basis points since September.
The cut drove up the value of the dollar against the Turkish lira. The lira traded at 11.40 to the greenback at 5 p.m. GMT.
