Şimşek to attend IMF-World Bank annual meeting this week

ISTANBUL

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is scheduled to attend the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - World Bank annual meeting this week in Morocco’s Marrakech.

It is the first such meeting to be held on the African continent after half a century. The meeting will take place between Oct. 9 and 15.

Central Bank Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan is also expected to accompany Şimşek at the event.

The minister will be in Marrakech between Oct. 11 and 14.

Şimşek was in London last week for investor meetings.

“We continue our efforts to provide additional external resources to our country. We had very productive meetings in London,” Şimşek wrote on X. He, however, did not provide further details on the meetings in the U.K,’s capital.

The minister is also scheduled to pay visits to other foreign countries until the end of the month.

Şimşek will deliver a speech at an investor meeting in Paris on Oct. 19.

He is also expected to embark on a second tour of Gulf countries at the end of the month.

Bolstering foreign reserves

“We will continue to accumulate international reserves as much as market conditions allow,” Şimşek also wrote on X.

He noted that gross foreign exchange reserves decreased by $3.3 billion weekly and reached $122.2 billion on Sept. 29.

“It seems that gold prices and swap transactions played a role in this development. While the domestic swap stock decreased by $2.2 billion in the said period, the effect of the decline in gold prices was $1.1 billion.

Meanwhile, the IMF welcomed the authorities’ policy shift since the election.

Şimşek was appointed the finance minister and Erkan took the helm at the Central Bank after the May elections.

The recent actions to raise the policy rate, increase taxes, and liberalize some financial sector measures have reduced risks and lifted investor confidence, the fund said in a statement late on Oct. 6.

The statement was released following a staff team from the fund, led by James P. Walsh, visited Türkiye, during Sept. 25-29, to discuss recent economic developments, the outlook and policies.

“The authorities should build on the current momentum. This requires prioritizing disinflation by bringing the ex-ante real policy rate into contractionary territory, continuing to liberalize financial regulations to improve the functioning of money and credit markets, and containing the fiscal deficit,” the fund said.

Türkiye’s growth is projected to slow to 3.25 percent in 2024 from 4 percent in 2023, according to the fund.

The current account deficit is expected to narrow to about 3 percent of GDP in 2024, it said.