Turkish Central Bank head calls for ‘right policy mix’ to avoid economic shocks

ANKARA/ANTALYA - Anadolu Agency

A right policy mix is essential for countries to cope with or avoid economic shocks, the Turkish Central Bank Governor said April 3.        

“The time is right for us to press on with our efforts to enhance economic resilience and focus on structural reforms.   Such attention would allow us to minimize the impact of potential shocks, to recover from them more quickly, and even to avoid them as much as possible,” Murat Çetinkaya said at a Central Bank Governors’ Club of Central Asia, the Black Sea Region and Balkan Countries meeting in the southern province of Antalya.        

Neither monetary policy nor fiscal and macro prudential measures alone could be a substitute for structural adjustments, he added.  
      
The right policy would involve country-specific structural reforms, he said. 

He added that structural reforms are vital to boosting productivity, competitiveness and growth in the medium and long term.        

A favorable business environment, flexible labor and product markets plus efficient social security systems are required to establish economic resilience, Çetinkaya told the meeting.        

He said the global economy was gaining some momentum. “There is strengthening in advanced economies and emerging economies seem to have bottomed out, although the pace of recovery varies. But we are central bankers and our watchword is prudence,” he added. 
        
The meeting in Antalya is slated to finish on April 4.