Turkey’s craftsmen to be given low interest loans

ISTANBUL

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says small shop owners will be able to use loans with lower interest rates with the new changes.

Turkish small shop owners will be able to use loans with lower interest rates, the Turkish prime minister has announced.

“For the loans up to one year term, the interest rates will be brought down to 4 percent and for the loans over one year term, it will be 5 percent,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday at a craftsmen’s briefing meeting held at Ankara Chamber of Commerce. “The difference will be paid by the treasury.”

The interest rate cut will be applied to loans that craftsmen receive from state-owned Halkbank along with the sponsorship of the Union of Associations of Turkish Craftsmen and Artisans (TESKOMB).

The prime minister also praised the progress of Halkbank during his speech at the meeting. “In 2001, Halkbank was being planned to be closed. That bank, Halkbank, which was set to be closed down, now has a market value of $13.5 billion.”

Erdoğan recalled that 353 branches of Halkbank were shut down due to pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2001, but that now it had opened 50 new branches to meet rising demand.