Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he would drive away the scourge of interest from the nation.
"Those who defend interest among our friends should not take offense. I cannot and will not be with the one who defends interest," Erdogan told his Justice and Development (AK) Party's parliamentary group meeting.
“As long as I am in this position, I will continue my fight against interest and inflation until the end,” the Turkish leader said.
“Interest is the cause, and inflation is the effect,” he added, reiterating a motto he coined.
The president has championed interest rate cuts as a way to spur domestic economic growth, Anadolu Agency reported.
Erdogan said a bright future awaits Turkey "if we can leave 2022 and 2023 behind without causing any break."
Last month, Turkey's Central Bank lowered its benchmark one-week repo rate – also known as the policy rate – by 200 basis points from 18% to 16%.
Turkey saw an annual increase of 19.89% in consumer prices in October, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Nov. 3. Annual inflation rose by 0.31 percentage point from 19.58% a month ago, while the figure was 11.89% in October 2020, according to TurkStat data.