Growth rate of Turkey will exceed expectations: President Erdoğan
ISTANBUL
Turkey’s growth rate will be higher than the anticipated figures as of 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said March 12.
“I believe that growth figures will surpass those anticipated,” Erdoğan said at a rally in the Küçükçekmece district of Istanbul.
He said that the growth rate for 2018 was 2.6 percent in Turkey, despite negative growth in the last quarter of the year. “We maintain and will maintain this stability,” he said.
Central Bank reserves fell to $80 billion in this period, but the government restored up to over $100 billion, he said, adding that total foreign direct investments to Turkey had reached $13.2 billion.
The current account deficit declined to $21.6 billion, Erdoğan added.
The future generations of Turkey will better understand today’s Turkey taking into account the “attacks” the country has faced after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt.
Turkey has witnessed “attacks in the dragon’s triangle of foreign currency, interest and inflation rates,” but the country responded well, according to the president.
“They are saying that we will apply to the International Monetary Fund [IMF] for a loan. When we took power, we dealt with IMF loans. We cleared the debt and closed the IMF chapter,” he said, condemning the claims made by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) that Turkey would seek to negotiate with the IMF after the upcoming local elections.
The president once again repeated that the history of the CHP is “full of debts and servitude.”
“No matter what they are doing, they are unable to make Turkey kneel neither in the economy, nor in politics and defense,” Erdoğan added.
The nationalization of defense has increased from 20 percent to 65 percent, according to Erdoğan.
“Before, we were asking U.S. presidents to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles. Now, we are producing them along with drones. We will produce even bigger ones,” he said.
