Inflation message from Cevdet Yılmaz: 'By the middle of this year...'

Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz met with opinion leaders in Diyarbakır.

Making statements to members of the press, Yılmaz argued that inflation would begin to fall by the middle of this year.

"Our fundamental issue is inflation. Our citizens' problem is our problem as well. Therefore, we are making a great effort in this regard," said Yılmaz, adding, "We will solve this step by step, God willing, through the policies of our Central Bank on one hand, our fiscal policies on the other, and through structural reforms—what we call changes that increase institutional and market efficiency and competitiveness in Turkey. We will all see significant declines in inflation, especially after the middle of this year, God willing. We are making these projections together, and as a team with our colleagues, we are continuing our efforts and our fight against inflation. With the strong leadership of our President, his political will, and the support he gives to our program, we are realizing this process step by step."

"WE WILL TRANSITION TO A MORE COMFORTABLE PERIOD STARTING FROM 2025, GOD WILLING"

Emphasizing that they have experienced the greatest disaster in history and that this disaster was on a scale that could significantly affect the economy even in the most developed countries, Yılmaz stated that they are healing the wounds of the earthquake.

Yılmaz continued as follows:

"We made significant expenditures last year. This year, we have allocated over 1 trillion liras in our budget just to heal the wounds of the earthquake and prepare our cities for such disasters. It has only been a year since the earthquake, and our President has begun distributing earthquake housing in some provinces and has participated in the lottery draws. We will also deliver over 1,300 completed homes in Diyarbakır. Later, these deliveries will be made to the rightful owners gradually. Our expenditures are not limited to housing alone. On one hand, we are building permanent homes, and on the other, we are repairing the infrastructure. We are striving for the economic and social development of our provinces in the earthquake zone. We are carrying out various incentives, programs, and studies in this direction, and we will continue to do so. 2024 is our most intensive period in this sense. We will transition to a more comfortable period starting from 2025, God willing.

We currently estimate inflation to be around 15 percent. In 2026, with God's permission, we will all reach single-digit figures together again. You might wonder why we don't do it immediately. You might think, why doesn't it fall all at once? There are many balances. If you only focused on this, it might fall in a very short time, but the cost would be very high. It would have costs on growth, employment, and social balances. Therefore, why are we proceeding in a more gradual manner? By considering all balances. We have to continue all these efforts together: reducing inflation while maintaining our growth and employment, supporting various social segments, and preventing the erosion of purchasing power in the face of this inflation. There is a roadmap that this brings. We are implementing it step by step. We are striving to minimize the effects of inflation, especially on broad social segments. Despite the earthquake we experienced, despite the geopolitical tensions around us, and despite the difficulties regarding the fight against terrorism and other issues, we are utilizing all our resources for the low-income and wage-earning segments, and we will continue to do so."

News Source: AA