Minister Nabati: Our main issue right now is inflation.

In addition to the Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati, Denizli Deputy Governor Mehmet Okur, AK Party Denizli deputies Şahin Tin, Cahit Özkan, Nilgün Ök and Ahmet Yıldız, Denizli Metropolitan Mayor Osman Zolan, AK Party Denizli Provincial President Yücel Güngör, MHP Denizli Provincial President Mehmet Ali Yılmaz, heads of non-governmental organizations and business people attended. Speaking at the meeting, Minister Nabati said that they understood the month of Ramadan with bitter feelings due to earthquakes and those who lost their lives in the flood disaster. Minister Nebati noted that the wounds caused by all these disasters will be healed together as quickly as possible, and the financial losses will be compensated with much better ones, and that since the first day of the earthquake and flood disasters, the whole cabinet has been working on the field and in unity with the nation.

‘IN ONE YEAR, WE WILL COMPLETE THE CONSTRUCTION OF 319 THOUSAND HOUSES AND VILLAGE HOUSES’

Stating that approximately 40 billion liras of cash has been transferred to AFAD so far, Minister Nebati said, «We provide cash aid to our citizens affected by the earthquake and the relatives of our brothers and sisters who lost their lives. We made an emergency aid payment of 10 thousand liras per household. In addition, 15 thousand liras of Disaster Relocation Support Payment per household. We have completed most of the applications within the scope of TCIP, and we have made a total damage payment of 14.4 billion liras. I hope we will complete all the compensation payments by the end of this month. We are working day and night to ensure the reconstruction and restoration of the disaster area. In a year, 319 thousand houses and «We will complete the construction of the village house. We will build 650 thousand houses in total. In other words, we are running a process that will almost build a medium-sized country from scratch. The number of houses, workplaces, village houses and hospitals that have started to be built throughout our country has exceeded 56 thousand,» he said.

‘We have included the provinces affected by the earthquake within the scope of force majeure’

Stating that they quickly implemented other additional measures to support the citizens and the real sector as a ministry after the earthquake disaster, Minister Nebati said, «We included the provinces affected by the earthquake under the scope of force majeure. We postponed the tax obligations in the region and offered installments for 24 months to the debts owed to the tax offices. To support our tradesmen, Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) packages. We increased the KGF limit of 250 billion liras to 400 billion liras. We postponed the loan payments of our tradesmen and craftsmen in the region. We provided interest-free loans of up to 1.5 million liras to our SMEs, which suffered from the earthquake, to meet their financing needs. «We postponed the loans of our farmers, one of the most affected segments, without interest for a period of 1 year. We provided feed support of 500 lira for cattle and 50 lira for sheep and goats. We started to give our diesel and fertilizer support in cash,» he said.

‘WE MADE THE TURKISH ECONOMY MODEL’

Pointing out that the global economy has continued to experience shocks of incomparable magnitude and frequency in the last few years, Nebati continued as follows:

«Conventional methods are no longer sufficient while simultaneously struggling with many crises and disasters from epidemics to wars, from floods to droughts, from energy to food. As a matter of fact, it is obvious that the tight monetary policies implemented by developed economies in the fight against inflation dragged the world towards recession and financial crises, and fueled unemployment. In this challenging period, we implemented the Turkish Economy Model, which focuses on the needs and goals of our country, not the direction pointed by the global order, and puts inclusive growth and most importantly people at the center. They continue to increase their growth forecasts for our country. The most recent example of this is the fact that the World Bank updated its growth expectation for our country two days ago, despite the earthquakes described as the disaster of the century. His high performance proves how wrong those in our country, who know nothing but making pessimistic predictions, are wrong.»

‘WE REACHED THE BEST LEVELS OF OUR REPUBLIC HISTORY IN MACROECONOMIC INDICATORS’

Stating that Turkey is one of the fastest growing countries among the G-20 countries with its 5.6 percent growth in 2022, Nebati said, «The growth in machinery and equipment investments has been continuing uninterruptedly for 13 quarters. The healthy and strong growth in the economy also brings new growth in employment. It paves the way for us to test the peaks. In January of this year, we have achieved a historically high level of employment with 31.8 million people. Our exports have also reached record levels in the history of our Republic. Today, while exporting to 228 countries and regions, we have surpassed the annual export level of 255 billion dollars as of March 2023. Another area where we broke records is the tourism sector. We have become the 4th most preferred tourism country in the world with 51.4 million visitors and a record tourism income of 46.3 billion dollars in 2022. During this period, we have achieved the minimum wage in particular. Despite the improvements we have made in the incomes of our wage-earners and the tax cuts we have applied in many items, we have never made any concessions on our fiscal discipline. Thankfully, we have the power to bear the burden of EYT, salary increases and the earthquake on public finances. In fact, the table is clear. Even in a difficult year like 2022, we have reached the best levels of our Republic history in almost all macroeconomic indicators. Those who want should open and examine macro data such as growth, employment, production, exports and tourism revenues,» he said.

He criticized the opposition

Stating that they succeeded by working day and night to turn the global turmoil into an opportunity by putting the Turkish Economy Model into use, Minister Nebati said, «Now, of course, those who try to get prescriptions from consultants across the Atlantic, unfortunately, cannot comprehend the national struggle we are waging in the economic field. They want to. Let the economy in Turkey always revolve around carrying water, things should be handled with imported formulas. Today, the 7-table table continues to play with 7 different strings in the field of economy. One talks about tight monetary policy, the other distributes money to the market from a large ladle in his imagination, accompanied by pink flowers. What is your economic policy? Is it just inconsistent, groundless and dusty pink dreams? It’s like 7 people are on a rope and they are all trying to play on the rope. I’ve asked this table of 7 a few times before, I haven’t received an answer yet. Of course, who will give the answer? this is also doubtful. Now, I’m asking here once again. Give me a clear answer to my two questions, without making a fuss; first, ‘Will you wait at the IMF gates again to find hot money?’ The second is ‘Will you suppress the production economy and increase unemployment by raising interest rates?’ Forget your empty but very fancy promises. Give clear and precise answers,» he said.

Minister Nebati said, «Those who cannot understand and digest the spiritual sensitivities of our people, unfortunately almost never stand behind our common national causes,» said Minister Nebati.

«Under the leadership of our President, we have increased our defense industry from 20 percent to 80 percent locality. We have produced the resources to finance this process and many other gigantic projects. They can even look sideways at our defense industry, which is followed with envy by the whole world today. This is of course never acceptable. «It is not an approachable approach. We took our electric vehicle, Toog, which is a cornerstone in Turkey’s green transformation, to the roads as planned. Thank God, we have been fortunate to realize the 60-year-old dream of our nation.»

‘OUR MOST BASIC ISSUE IS INFLATION’

Stating that their main issue is inflation at the moment, Minister Nebati said, «We have entered a downward trend in inflation since November 2022, and it has declined to an annual level of 50.5 percent as of March 2023. What job, which work, which the current opposition tells us you cannot do, Thankfully, we have succeeded in doing all of them one by one. We will do many more. Now we are taking steps to reduce our dependence on foreign energy in energy. As our President stated, I hope we will commission the natural gas we discovered in the Black Sea on 20 April. The distance that Turkey has covered in the last 21 years is almost a century. Every day of these 21 years, without exception, is full of our countless works and services that we have brought to our nation in every corner of our country. Today, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of our Republic, Turkey has reached a new threshold. On the one hand, Turkey has reached a new threshold. While there are global tremors, our country will either surrender to the unstable tides of coalition governments, as in the 90s, or, under the strong leadership of our president, will step into the Century of Turkey. In the Turkish Century, we will continue to work tirelessly to make our country one of the world’s top 10 economies in every field. Our Turkish Economy Model is essentially a solid guarantee of this great vision. In this period of Turkey’s rise, we will continue to produce together for our country, and we will continue to make every effort together.»