PM Erdoğan: Government Aims to Decrease Inflation and Interest rates
The Turkish government aims to “decrease both inflation and interest rates,” said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday, adding that his primary aim is to cut the real interest rate down to zero in the long run.
Erdoğan was speaking at the general congress of the All Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association, or TÜMSİAD, held in Istanbul.
“We aim to cut the real interest rate in the long run, so people will increase their incomes through working, not through interest,” said Erdoğan. “Eventually we aim to equalize the interest rate and inflation rate.”
Addressing industrialists, the PM said prosperity has been increasing under the rule of the Justice and Development Party. “The number of cars sold in 2002 was at around only 96,000 in the domestic market. Now it is 510,000,” he said.
Erdoğan also said Turkey has been attracting tourists from all around the world. The number of visitors to Turkey by the end of the first quarter has reached 3.6 million, compared to last year’s 2.4 million, he said. “These are the results of the political and economical stability provided by our government.”
Also speaking at the event, State Minister Zafer Çağlayan said Turkey could reach annual exports of $500 billion by 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Republic. Çağlayan said, however, that the main opposition party’s target of reaching $650 billion by the end of 2023 is “unrealistic.”
April 29, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News
