Government will prioritize economy after summer: PM Yıldırım

ANKARA

The Turkish government’s priority after summer will be the economy, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said, adding that work on new economic programs is underway. 

“After the summer months, the biggest weight in our agenda will be on the economy. We will implement new programs on the economy,” Yıldırım told reporters in Ankara after the Friday prayer on Aug. 4, without giving details.

“Taking the advantage of the summer months, we are drafting these programs,” he said, recalling that the recent cabinet and military reshuffles have now been left behind and so the priority will be given to the economy.

Four out of five deputy premiers were changed in a cabinet reshuffle on July 19, with Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, who is in charge of economy, remaining in his post. 

Deputy Prime Ministers Nurettin Canikli, who was also in charge of economic issues, was appointed as the new defense minister. 

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, Development Minister Lütfi Elvan and Finance Minister Naci Ağbal also secured their positions.

Deputy PM Şimşek welcomed on a drop to single digits in Turkey’s inflation rate, also saying that measures to control the inflation rate were in the pipeline. 

“It is good that the inflation rate is back to single digits. I believe it will remain at single digits by the year-end before taking a more rational path, under 7 percent,” Şimşek said during a live interview on broadcaster NTV on Aug. 3.

“We will launch a very serious structural measures package. We have taken some partial steps and introduced some incentives for the supply chain,” he said, adding that a food committee, founded to control price hikes, will fine-tune the planned reform. 

He was speaking shortly after the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced that monthly annual inflation dropped to 9.79 percent, its lowest level in six months.

On Aug. 5, Minister Elvan also said that the government expectation for inflation rate in 2018 was around 7 percent. 

He said the growth expectation for the second quarter of the year, a data yet to be revealed, was 5 percent. 

Elvan said work was underway for a medium-term economy program, which will cover a three-year period.