Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on Tuesday that his meeting with investors in New York would contribute to foreign inflows to Türkiye, while also stressing that the country’s new economic plan had President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s full backing.
The meeting followed Şimşek’s statement that the country has secured a combined $10.4 billion (TL 281.21 billion) in financing from abroad since June, as it embraced more conventional policies to tackle inflation after a long-running easing trend.
In a post on social media platform X, Şimşek said he met with the world’s leading fund managers in a roundtable meeting hosted by Goldman Sachs and shared the goals of Türkiye’s new economic program.
“Our president’s full support for our policies to take inflation under control is the most important factor that increases confidence in our policy framework,” Şimşek said, expressing beliefs that his meetings with investors would contribute to the foreign inflows to Türkiye.
Erdoğan is known as a proponent of lower borrowing costs,but he last week expressed his strongest pledge of support yet for his new economic administration’s policy overhaul.
He said inflation would fall to single digits with the support of a tight monetary policy.
After his reelection in May, Erdoğan reshuffled his economy team and named two accomplished bankers, including Şimşek and Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan.
Şimşek told investors that fighting inflation was the government’s “No. 1 priority.”
Annual inflation shot back to nearly 60% in August and is forecast to rise further in the coming months before an expected downward trend next year.
To contain price gains, the central bank is expected to deliver another hefty rate hike of up to 500 basis points when its policymakers meet on Thursday.
Under Erkan, the central bank has roughly tripled its benchmark policy rate as it hiked it by 1,650 basis points to 25% and promised more tightening.
“Our economy team is now engaged in intense work” and “successfully maintaining the process of containing inflation by the end of this year, or the beginning of next year,” Erdoğan said in New York.
Out of the funding from abroad that poured in since June, the banking sector secured over $6.7 billion, the real sector attracted $3.26 billion and the non-banking financial sector accounted for $367 million.
“This is the clearest indication of confidence in the country’s economy,” Şimşek told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday.
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat also addressed the investors in New York.
Bolat said they foresee a serious jump in direct investments and expressed optimism about momentum in Türkiye’s economy and foreign trade.
“At the meeting, managers of nearly 125 American investor organizations and owners or senior managers of Türkiye’s leading companies were present. In the first part, as the Trade Ministry, we discussed the general situation of the Turkish economy, our foreign trade, Turkish-American trade relations, the scope of investments and improvements,” said Bolat about the 13th Türkiye Investment Conference.
Regarding the 13th Türkiye Investment Conference, organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) and the Türkiye-U.S. Business Council (TAIK), Mehmet Ali Yalçındağ, chairperson of the TAIK in his interview with AA also emphasized the interest of investors in Türkiye and its new medium-term program.
Pointing out the importance of ensuring the trust of investors, Yalçındağ said: “Our ministers, especially Minister Şimşek, explain this very well. While inviting the relevant investors and the business world to Türkiye, they say very important things and instill confidence. These upcoming five years offer to people, to Türkiye an investment opportunity.”
Yalçındağ stated he saw that investors had a great “appetite for Türkiye” and that the results of this could be seen after these meetings.
“I saw that there were many interested fund managers from various states who wanted to listen to the Finance Minister Şimşek. It was a very successful meeting,” he said.
Stating that such meetings would increase Yalçındağ said: “I think all of these will quickly attract investment to Türkiye.”