Şimşek meets with investors in Spain

ISTANBUL

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has held a meeting in Spain with representatives of Spanish companies and the finance industry.

“Our international investor meetings continue in Spain,” Şimşek wrote on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

The meeting, organized by BBVA, with executives of globally influential Spain-based companies worth $2 trillion and the financial sector, was very productive, the minister said.

Investors from the communications, finance, energy, health, tourism, automotive and textile sectors are showing great interest in Türkiye's growth potential and the opportunities it offers, Şimşek added.

“Our medium-term program will make significant contributions to revitalizing the investment appetite for our country and increasing international investments,” Şimşek said.

Meanwhile, Central Bank Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan said on Dec. 14 that the monetary tightening has neared to a level required to establish the disinflation,

The effect of the policies implement will spread over time, though leading indicators are already pointing to some positive results, Erkan said in a speech at a meeting at the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM).

“Demand will rebalance in the transition period before the disinflation period starts in the second half of 2024,” she said.

The Central Bank last month delivered a larger-than-expected rate hike, lifting the one-week repo auction rate by 500 basis points to 40 percent.

Since June, the bank has raised the policy rate by a cumulative 3,150 basis points as part of its efforts to bring inflation under control.

The pace of monetary tightening will slow down, and the tightening cycle will be completed in a short period of time, the Central Bank said in a statement released after the rate-setting meeting on Nov. 24.

At the event at TİM, Erkan also noted that the developments regarding the deposit accounts show that people are switching to Turkish Lira.

The FX-protected deposit accounts have been declining since the Central Bank started to roll back the scheme in August.

FX-protected deposits fell to 2.7 trillion liras as of Dec. 12 after reaching as high as 3.4 trillion liras in mid-September.