“We will continue to make Türkiye grow through investment, employment, manufacturing, exports and current account surplus”
Speaking at the opening session of the 3rd Legislative Year of the 28th Term of the GNAT, President Erdoğan said: “We are rapidly improving the macro balances that were disturbed, initially due to the Covid-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the wars in our region, and the impact of the disaster of the century. We will continue to implement our quality growth strategy for Türkiye through investment, employment, manufacturing, exports and current account surplus.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered the opening speech of the 3rd Legislative Year of the 28th Term of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (GNAT).
President Erdoğan said: “Despite the February 6 earthquakes which were the biggest disaster of the century and the hot conflicts in our region, we are committed to advance towards our economic goals. The stability and reform program we launched after the elections on May 14-28 is bearing fruit. We have made significant progress in our economic program in the last year with the support of our Parliament. We have resolved many of the issues that were at the top of our agenda last year and we continue to work on others.
I would like to share some numbers here to give you an idea. The Central Bank’s gross reserves, which were 98.5 billion dollars in May last year, have now exceeded 156 billion dollars to reach the highest level in the history of the Republic. Today we can comfortably say that praise be to Allah, Türkiye no longer has a reserve problem.
“WE REDUCED THE CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICIT TO A SUSTAINABLE LEVEL”
We also tackled another important problem and reduced the current account deficit to a sustainable level. Our efforts reduced the current account deficit, which was 57 billion dollars last year, to less than 20 billion dollars in July.
Our exports broke a record with 256 billion dollars in 2023. Our strong performance in exports continues in 2024. Annual exports reached a historic peak of 262 billion dollars in August.
In tourism, we closed 2023 with record revenue and visitor numbers. This year, we are aiming for 60 million tourists and 60 billion dollars of tourism revenue; hopefully, we will achieve this goal.
We have created 1 million 105 thousand additional jobs in the last year.
Our GDP exceeded the 1 trillion dollar mark and reached 1 trillion 119 billion dollars. Thus, we have managed to cross another very critical psychological threshold in this respect.
Türkiye was the only country whose credit rating was increased by three major institutions in 2024. Thanks to the improvement in the basic indicators of our economy, our country’s risk premium is also decreasing. The external debt rollover ratios of our banking and real sectors have increased. We also removed Türkiye from the grey list, where it was placed for mostly political reasons.
“INFLATION IS IN A DOWNWARD PATH THANKS TO OUR DETERMINED STANCE”
In the meantime, we did not compromise on financial discipline despite the additional 104 billion dollar cost that the February 6 earthquakes caused for the Turkish economy.
We never resorted to populism during the process leading up to March 31 elections, when politics was captured by a discourse that raised the stakes with false claims.
Praise be to Allah, inflation is in a downward path thanks to our determined stance. Annual inflation fell by 23.5 points in the last three months. Food inflation also turned negative on a monthly basis for the first time in 4 years. The decline in inflation will continue in the coming months and our people will feel this decline more clearly in the food stalls, supermarkets, and in their kitchen.
As I always say, we have only one agenda, and that is to permanently increase the welfare and purchasing power of our citizens. Whatever we do, whatever sacrifices we make, we do it for this reason. As our immediate region becomes more stable, we will hopefully attain better results.
“WE ARE RAPIDLY IMPROVING THE MACRO BALANCES”
I would like to emphasize the following with great pleasure: We are rapidly improving the macro balances that were disturbed, initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the wars in our region, and the impact of the disaster of the century. We will continue to implement our quality growth strategy for Türkiye through investment, employment, manufacturing, exports and current account surplus.
As I have stated at every opportunity, we are open to any suggestions that will contribute to our economic program. However, we do not approve of discourses that aim to weaken the belief in the program we are implementing. Let us agree that criticism is one thing, being an economic hitman is another. Causing loss for Türkiye cannot be an instrument of politics and will not be to the advantage of our nation. When the interests of Türkiye and our 85 million citizens are at stake, we need to leave political rivalry aside. We expect utmost sensitivity from our Parliament and the esteemed members on this issue and thank each and every one of you in advance for your support. I would like to reiterate here that the rapid recovery of the earthquake region will continue to be our priority agenda. Whatever the circumstances, we will always stand by the earthquake victims whose homes were destroyed, whose lives were disrupted, and who lost their loved ones on the night of February 6. We will heal their wounds and, God willing, we will deliver them their safe homes one by one.”
