İnce tells Erdoğan to ‘sack your economic aides’ as Turkey’s economy tanks
ERZİNCAN
Muharrem İnce, the presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to replace his economic advisers, warning that Turkey’s economy is “about to hit a wall.”
“Please revise all your aides and staff who have been giving you wrong information. Remove those who have been lying to you,” İnce said on May 23 in a rally in the eastern province of Erzincan.
He was speaking as the value of the Turkish Lira continued to plunge to fresh record lows against the dollar and he warned that the fall in the lira’s value “will result in high inflation and higher interest rates.”
“If they will insist on the current path we will all sink. Our nation will lose income. Our economic system will get into a serious turmoil,” İnce added, listing four other calls to Erdoğan to address deepening economic woes.
“Also, please do not to intervene in the Central Bank’s independent implementation of monetary policy. Third, please share with the market that non-emergency public spending will be postponed and public financial discipline will be a priority,” he said.
He also said there is a speculation that foreign exchange controls will be implemented, calling on Erdoğan to “dismiss the rumors.
“Please publicly announce that none of the outdated practices such as foreign exchange controls or exchanging all assets from foreign currencies into Turkish Liras will ever be on the agenda,” İnce added.
CHP Deputy Chair Faik Öztrak also issued a written statement asking parliament to urgently assemble to lift the state of emergency in order to “find a solution” for current economic strife.
“The presidential office’s influence on economic management should also be lifted and the public should be guaranteed through a written statement that the Central Bank is free to use its tools,” Öztrak stated, reiterating İnce’s call for a cull of Erdoğan’s aides.
“The presidential aides who have become a risk factor with their self-proclaimed theories should be sacked,” he said.
“In an environment where the gross external debt is $450 billion and companies’ net debt is $222 billion, the ruling authorities who have been trying to handle the situation with claims about ‘external enemies’ and ‘people setting traps for Turkey,’ rather than taking proper measures, should see that the sea is finished,” Öztrak added.
