İTO head calls for cheaper dollar sale to companies from Central Bank

ISTANBUL

CİHAN photo

The head of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO), İbrahim Çağlar, has said the private sector’s debts have increased by 17.5 billion Turkish Liras ($5.7 billion) over the year due to a dramatic loss in the lira’s value and called on Turkey’s Central Bank to sell the dollar at 2.7 to Turkish companies which have short-term debts. 

He noted the manufacturing sector’s short-term debt has reached $35 billion, excluding their financial debts. 
“With dramatic losses in the Turkish Lira’s value, this debt has surged by 17.5 billion liras over the year. The companies made their calculations on the Turkish Lira at 2.5 to the U.S. dollar, but this has now become over 3.

In order to be able to overcome this problem, I invite the Central Bank and the government to help companies in offsetting an increase of around 17.5 billion liras in short-term debt,” he said at the monthly meeting of the İTO on Sept. 10. 

He said the Central Bank should sell the U.S. dollar to indebted companies at a rate of 2.7. 

“This support will cost just around $3.5 billion to the public sector, equaling to just the yearly profit of the Central Bank. Instead of transferring its profit to the Treasury, the Central Bank can use this amount to fuel the manufacturing sector,” he said. 

Çağlar also offered the opening of cheaper loan lines to all private companies. 

The Treasury had offered tradesmen the opportunity to use 50 percent cheaper loans from state-run Halkbank. 

“This opportunity should be extended to all private companies. There are more than 500,000 private companies in Turkey, constituting around one-third of the economy. This cheaper loan chance will nourish both these companies and the economy,” he said.