Turkish economy ‘performed strongly’ in February: Minister

ISTANBUL

The Turkish economy performed well in February in providing financial support to struggling companies, Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak has said.

“We have left behind February showing a strong performance for the real sector with a decrease of 50 percent in the number of companies seeking concordat [legal protection] and a credit growth of 43.5 billion Turkish Liras,” Albayrak tweeted on March 7.

On March 6 he said the inflation outlook will further improve starting from the second quarter of this year.

“Thanks to the structural measures we will take, in line with the decline in inflation, both interest rates and costs will also come down,” said Albayrak, speaking at a meeting with businesspeople in the western province of Kocaeli.

The minister also noted that the number of companies seeking concordat, legal protection against creditors, declined more than 50 percent in January and February.

“This is important as it points to positive developments in the economy,” he said.

Central Bank keeps key rate unchanged

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Central Bank on March 6 kept its one-week repo rate - also known as the policy rate - constant at 24 percent.

“Recently released data show that rebalancing trend in the economy has become more noticeable,” the Central Bank said.

The decision came in a statement from the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting, which is the second of eight meetings scheduled for 2019.

“External demand maintains its relative strength while economic activity displays a slow pace, partly due to tight financial conditions. Current account balance is expected to maintain its improving trend,” the bank said.

In 2018, the bank held nine MPC meetings, as interest rates climbed from 8 percent to 24 percent over the course of the year.

“Developments in import prices and domestic demand conditions have led to some improvement in inflation indicators. Yet risks on price stability continue to prevail,” the bank said.

Turkey saw an annual hike of 19.67 percent in consumer prices in February, going down 0.68 percentage points from 20.35 percent in January.

The government’s inflation rate target is 15.9 percent this year.