Union of Chambers head warns firms against debt

Hacer Boyacıoğlu ANKARA / Radikal

Interest rates in Turkey appear to be continuing to rise, and companies should be careful about their debts, TOBB head Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu says. DHA photo

Turkish companies should receive fewer loans and should use more of their own equities, Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges (TOBB) head Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said yesterday.

“We have all seen strong signals showing that the United States Federal Reserve (FED) will start to taper quantitative easing by September. To be sure, this will negatively affect the global liquidity. Companies which do not have foreign currency gains therefore should not take an open position on currencies,” he said.

The decreasing trend liquidity in global markets has negatively affected interest rates in Turkey.

Companies need to be careful

“The rates appear to be continuing to hike. Companies should be very careful,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said, also referring to some positive developments in global markets.

“We have seen some recovery signals in European economies. The eight-quarter-long shrinking came to an end in the eurozone last month. This is good for Turkish exporters,” he said.

He also made assessments about the latest decisions by the Turkey’s Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) and central banks to reduce the general provisioning ratio on SME loans and export loans.

“These attempts are good. And we’ve supported them, although it was a bit late. In the previous period, some measures were taken to reduce loans in all sectors, but we warned the authorities about the possible negative effects of those measures on SMEs and exporters. What we had feared unfortunately happened,” he said, addressing some dramatic decreases both in SME loans and export loans during that period.