Turkey’s Finance Minister Şimşek says reversing challenging conditions will take time

In an interview with the Financial Times, Turkey’s Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, said, “Reversing challenging conditions will take time.” Minister Şimşek mentioned that they aimed to “rebalance the economy and soften domestic demand” and emphasized the need for patience during the process of policy change.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Şimşek underscored his support for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s new economic policies, saying, “We are on the right track. There are strong indications that trust has returned. However, we must be patient; we are still in a challenging period.”

In his first international media interview since taking office in June, Mehmet Şimşek stated that he was working to “rebalance the economy and soften domestic demand” after years of unconventional economic policies that were pursued at the behest of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The FT interview was presented to readers under the headline “Turkey’s Finance Minister says reversing challenging conditions will take time.”

“TURKEY NEEDS TIME TO OVERCOME THE CHALLENGING PERIOD”

Şimşek stated that inflation would be in a “transitional phase” until the middle of next year and noted that, along with quantitative tightening measures, financial conditions were tighter than indicated by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey’s policy rate.

He also noted following; “You need trust to erase inflation expectations.”