President Erdogan revises his promise regarding inflation, again

According to AK Party leader and President Erdogan, inflation which has broken the record of the last 24 years by increasing from 19 percent to 80.21 percent in a year, will come down to ‘reasonable levels’ in February, next year.

Speaking at the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce’s 140th Anniversary Special Awards program at the Haliç Congress Center, Erdogan gave a new date to bring down inflation and reacted to DEVA Party leader Ali Babacan without mentioning names.

He expressed his views as follows: “We hosted all the leaders at the Turkevi (huge building in Manhattan, NewYork). We worked, it happened (came true). We’ve been working for 20 years, it happens. We will have many more investments. The interest rate, inflation, exchange rate balance theories imposed on our country for years do not actually provide a solution to any problem, and the owners of this business (meaning business people) themselves admit it.” He added that inflation was not kept under control by increasing interest rates.

Erdogan, making statements about inflation in the continuation of his speech, said in summary: “I hope that we will first reduce the inflation issue which has reached levels that we do not want at all, to reasonable levels from next February, and then we will reduce it to single digits, as it should be. We have not had any of our citizens oppressed under the cost of living, we will not allow this. The cost of food paid to employees will be included in tax exemption.”

WHAT DID ERDOGAN SAY RECENTLY?

Erdogan’s words on “fighting inflation”, which began with the rhetoric of “I hope we will prevent the exorbitant price increase on the counters and labels on the shelves by controlling inflation as soon as possible” since September 10, 2021, have been going on for 1 year.

* November 17, 2021: “As long as I am in this post, I will continue my fight against interest and inflation to the end. Nas (having to do with religious instructions) is obvious about this. Now that Nas is clear, what’s happening to you and to me?”

*December 31, 2021: “Look, I’m saying it again. Interest is the cause, inflation is the result. When we say that inflation and price increases will fall rapidly, we are not expressing our wish, but a technical fact, a situation that must necessarily happen. I hope we will all see this together very soon.”

* January 26, 2022: “We are implementing structural policies that increase competition and productivity, and we aim to reduce inflation, this way.”

*January 29, 2022: “These are all temporary.”

*February 17, 2022: “The interest rate discussion has dropped significantly from the agenda, likewise, the exchange rate has stabilized. Now the next step is to reduce inflation to single digits again.”

*April 6, 2022: “We will all be patient with our people.”

* September 5, 2022: “We will eliminate high inflation from this country.”

* September 7, 2022: “Inflation will go down to 40 percent and 20 percent after the New Year.

September 25, 2022: “Inflation will decrease to reasonable levels in February.”