President Erdogan: Türkiye’s better access to financing, exports booming

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlines that Turkish businesses’ access to external financing has increased due to Türkiye’s declining risk premium

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that Turkish businesses are experiencing improved access to external financing, attributed to the gradual decline in Türkiye’s risk premium.

Last week, Türkiye’s five-year credit default swaps (CDS), a form of bondholder insurance, fell below 280 basis points, marking its lowest level in over four years.

Addressing a general assembly meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) in Ankara, Erdogan emphasized the government’s focus on policies aimed at enhancing qualified employment to meet demands of the labor market.

Türkiye’s resilience in the face of challenges

Highlighting Türkiye’s resilience in the face of challenges such as weakened foreign demand and the impact of earthquakes, President Erdogan noted that exports reached a historic high of $255.4 billion.

“We’re also performing strongly in tourism,” Erdogan continued. “Tourist arrivals reached 57.1 million, marking an annual increase of 11.1 percent, while tourism revenues surged to $54.3 billion, representing a 16.9 percent increase. This marks our best-ever performance in the tourism sector,” he said.

“We will focus on policies aimed at increasing qualified employment that will develop the skills and competencies needed in the labor market,” President Erdogan stated.

Türkiye’s automobile: Togg

Erdogan also mentioned Togg, Türkiye’s automobile, and said, “Last year, we launched Togg, Türkiye’s automobile, which has been a dream of our nation for 60 years. Thousands of Toggs that are on our roads today have the support and efforts of you, my brothers and sisters.”

“With Togg, our local and national brand, we said ‘we are also in the electric vehicle sector,’ which is developing rapidly. As you know, we did not only struggle with financial difficulties at that time. Rather, we struggled with learned helplessness that was engraved in our minds,” he added.

Fiscal discipline and structural reforms

Highlighting Türkiye’s official reserve assets, which rose to $127 billion last May from $97.1 billion, Erdogan underscored the government’s commitment to strengthening the medium-term economic program released in September. This includes increasing public savings, expediting structural reforms, and allocating more investment funds to priority sectors such as food, agriculture, green initiatives, and digital transformation.

Erdogan emphasized the importance of maintaining fiscal discipline to enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy and support the ongoing battle against inflation.

“By maintaining fiscal discipline, we will increase the effectiveness of our monetary policy and robustly support the fight against inflation,” he said.

On Monday, Türkiye introduced a series of measures aimed at disciplining public spending while enhancing efficiency, as part of efforts to address persistent inflation.

Source: AA