Turkey’s economy fares better than the world economy and outperforms Europe, despite many neighborhood risks, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said, again stressing that interest rates must be cut further to boost investments, Hürriyet reports.
“Turkey’s economy is in a much better situation than the global average, especially Europe, despite the many risks around. Our country is geographically proximate to many crisis regions in the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, and the Black Sea. All developments in our neighbors Syria and Iraq directly affect us,” Erdogan said during a speech at the Capital Markets Congress in Istanbul on Nov. 4.
“I then said the [global financial crisis of 2008-09] would only slightly touch our economy. Although some people undervalued my words, our economy reached record high growth rates in the subsequent period, excluding 2009. Our economy grew an average of 4.7 percent between 2003 and 2015. Despite a series of serious problems in the last three years, our economy achieved growth above the world average. For instance, we closed 2015 with 4 percent growth, despite two elections and serious terror attacks,” Erdogan said.
He particularly referred to Ankara’s determination to continue with a series of mega infrastructure projects, stressing that key projects have recently opened even after the failed July 15 military coup attempt.
“Turkey has managed to offer attractive opportunities to international investment companies and to strengthen its banking system. This enabled us to not face any problems in creating financing for these investments. Turkey has big targets; we need to think big,” Erdogan said, adding that the Turkish authorities have moved to facilitate local and foreign investors’ access to financing sources.
