Finance Minister Nebati slams opposition for ‘attacking economy’

ANKARA

Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati has accused the opposition of “systematically and hysterically” attacking the Turkish economy in order to influence the result of the presidential election to be held on May 28.

On Twitter, Nebati responded to what he described as the opposition circles’ groundless claims that the economic outlook will worsen if President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is reelected.

“It is now necessary to make those vote hunters, doomsayers and those who only seek their self-interest come to senses,” Nebati wrote, citing several macroeconomic data to show the state of the Turkish economy.

Nebati noted that the Turkish economy grew while the global economy contracted during the pandemic, recording a GDP growth rate of 11.4 percent in 2021 and expanding 5.6 percent in 2022 when the commodity prices skyrocketed in the world due to the Russian-Ukrainian war.

He hailed the gradually rising job creation in Türkiye at a time when a number of economies suffer from job losses, adding that the number of employed increased by 1.5 million people over a year as of March to 31.5 million.

Despite the deadly Feb. 6 earthquakes, which rattled 11 southern provinces, industrial production grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from the previous quarter, Nebati said. “This data alone is a clear indication of how sound the fundamentals of our economy are.”

Nebati also stressed that the budget performance in 2022 was one of the best in the past 20 years.

“Nobody should have any doubts that we will bring public finance indicators, including the budget and borrowing that will be affected by the earthquakes back to the levels where they were in a short period of time,” he said.