Erdoğan: I am the enemy of interest rates
ANKARA
DHA Photo
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again declared his opposition to interest rates, stating that earning via interest is “a tool of exploitation.”“I am an enemy of interest earnings. I see it as a tool of exploitation,” Erdoğan said on Oct. 20 during a ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara to mark the financing for two major health projects.
He declared that the ratio of interest rate spending to income had fallen to 13 percent from a previous 85.7 percent, but “even this is not enough for us.”
Erdoğan has long been a critic of interest rates, even suggesting that unrest in Turkey has been fostered by a shady “interest rate lobby” aiming to profit from political instability. He has repeatedly declared his aim to push interest rates to zero and has criticized former Central Bank governors Durmuş Yılmaz and Erdem Başçı for not lowering rates enough.
The state’s central budget gap stood at 12 billion liras in the first nine months of the year, Erdoğan said on Oct. 20, noting that the consumer price index had fallen to 8.8 percent.
“As of September, [the inflation rate] fell to 7.3 percent. Also our banks do not have a foreign exchange gap issue,” he said.
Referring to the rise in the unemployment rate in July to 10.7 percent, the president claimed that the reason was the rise in the number of people contributing to the workforce.
“As the rise in the workforce, triggered by the contribution of women and the youth, will continue, this is not a ratio that we cannot cope with, even though we cannot push it down,” Erdoğan said.
He declared that the ratio of interest rate spending to income had fallen to 13 percent from a previous 85.7 percent, but “even this is not enough for us.”
Erdoğan has long been a critic of interest rates, even suggesting that unrest in Turkey has been fostered by a shady “interest rate lobby” aiming to profit from political instability. He has repeatedly declared his aim to push interest rates to zero and has criticized former Central Bank governors Durmuş Yılmaz and Erdem Başçı for not lowering rates enough.
The state’s central budget gap stood at 12 billion liras in the first nine months of the year, Erdoğan said on Oct. 20, noting that the consumer price index had fallen to 8.8 percent.
“As of September, [the inflation rate] fell to 7.3 percent. Also our banks do not have a foreign exchange gap issue,” he said.
Referring to the rise in the unemployment rate in July to 10.7 percent, the president claimed that the reason was the rise in the number of people contributing to the workforce.
“As the rise in the workforce, triggered by the contribution of women and the youth, will continue, this is not a ratio that we cannot cope with, even though we cannot push it down,” Erdoğan said.
