President Erdoğan: Foreign exchange requirement for exporters reduced to 30 percent
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that they reduced the foreign exchange exchange obligation for exporters from 40 percent to 30 percent and said, "This regulation will be effective as of Monday. I hope it will be beneficial for the entire export family." In his speech at the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) 31st Ordinary General Assembly and Export Champions Award Ceremony held at the Haliç Congress Center, President Erdoğan said that high-technology product exports have increased 4.5 times since 2002 and that they will increase these rates even higher. Expressing that he wanted to give good news, Erdoğan said, "We reduced the foreign exchange exchange obligation for our exporters from 40 percent to 30 percent. This regulation will be effective as of Monday. I hope it will be beneficial for the entire export family." Erdoğan stated that despite the hot conflicts in the region and the 104 billion dollar financial bill of the February 6 earthquakes, they successfully managed the stormy period that the global economy is going through. Reminding that they shared their economic roadmap with the Medium Term Program (OVP) and 12th Development Plan that they prepared by meeting with all parties last year, Erdoğan said: "During the March 31 elections when populism reached its peak, we proved our trust in the program with our practices by staying away from unnecessary steps that would create an additional burden on the Turkish economy. We did not resort to methods such as lying to our people or distributing lavish promises in the squares just for the sake of winning the election. Those who made false promises in the election squares 3 months ago, are now only holding rallies, throwing flour on the line, and looking for ways to distract the people instead of keeping their promises. We see that those who make judgments by saying 'merit, justice, rights, law' are rewriting the book of nepotism today. Those who should be serving their cities are only working for their relatives." "We believe that the most difficult period in inflation is now behind us" Emphasizing that they do not resort to any unethical methods and are always honest with people and do not make promises they cannot keep, Erdoğan said, "We do politics to serve our country and our nation. Even if we pay the price ourselves, our concern is not to make our nation pay the price. We are not after what is in our own interest, but what is right for Turkey and the Turkish economy. Our priority is to save this country from the high cost of living problem for good. We are implementing monetary, fiscal and income policies in harmony to reduce inflation. Steps in the area of fiscal discipline will increase the effectiveness of our monetary policy and provide strong support for the fight against inflation." Stating that the first year of the economic program was a transition year and that they successfully completed this period as they had foreseen, Erdoğan continued his speech as follows: "We believe that the most difficult period in inflation is now behind us. Now we are entering a new period, the disinflation process, where we will see the results of the program more clearly. Just as we reduced inflation to single digits in the past, we will hopefully achieve the same success again. On the growth side, thank God, the rates are also very positive. Despite the earthquake disaster we experienced last year and the weakening in our export markets, we achieved a growth of 4.5 percent. Our national income exceeded 1 trillion dollars for the first time in current prices." Drawing attention to the fact that the Turkish economy ranks 17th in the world in nominal value and 11th in purchasing power parity, Erdoğan said, "Our growth in the first quarter of this year was 5.7 percent. 1.6 points of this stemmed from net foreign demand, in other words, from the valuable efforts of our valued exporters. We have entered a period in which the quality of growth has increased and the composition has particularly improved." President Erdoğan stated that the increase in machinery and equipment investments has been continuing for 18 quarters and that they are rapidly turning their ideals of a growth driven by investments and exports into reality, and said, "We foresee a balanced growth of close to 4 percent in 2024 to which net foreign demand will make a positive contribution." "We will take every necessary step without wasting time" Emphasizing that while the economy is moving towards its goals with sure steps, Turkey's appearance in international circles has also changed significantly, Erdoğan said, "The report card of the first year in the economy was quite good. Our program is bearing fruit just as we predicted. Our Central Bank's gross reserves increased by 45.2 billion dollars as of May 31, reaching a total of 143.6 billion dollars." Expressing that the inflow of foreign resources to the country continues thanks to the confidence and predictability created by the economic program, Erdoğan said that while the foreign debt rollover rates of the banking and real sectors have increased, these borrowings are being realized at lower costs. Erdoğan, who stated that the external debt rollover ratio of banks has increased from 96 percent to 153 percent and the external debt rollover ratio of the real sector to 118 percent in the last year, reported that banks have accessed more than 4 billion dollars of capital-like external resources since the beginning of the year. Erdoğan said, "I believe that we will see a strong revival in international direct investments in the coming period. We will take every step necessary to further improve our investment environment without wasting time. We will further strengthen our foundations with policies focused on digital and green transformation that will accelerate active industrial policies." Expressing that they clearly see the positive results of the program in the country's risk premium, Erdoğan noted the following: "Our country's CDS premium has decreased to 266 basis points. You are also closely following the credit rating agencies' rating increase and outlook steps. Multilateral development banks will also transfer nearly 60 billion dollars of resources to the financing of development projects in our country in the coming period. These long-term and low-cost resources will be at the disposal of all our entrepreneurs who invest, provide employment and contribute to exports."