Inflation statement draws attention! 'The political power feeds on lies'

While citizens living in Turkey wake up to news of new price hikes every day, President and AKP Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's claims that the Turkish economy is improving have highlighted the contradiction of the situation.

As citizens in the country protest against the recent price hikes and rising unemployment, Prof. Dr. Duran Bülbül responded to the government's 'inflation' statement in a post he shared on the subject.

In his post, Bülbül stated, "As a result of the long-standing and still high inflation, the economy has entered a stagnation (stagflation). Government officials explain this by saying inflation has fallen. Then why are you still raising prices on oil and its products? Food prices are increasing every day. Lies have become their capital."

HAS INFLATION FALLEN?

Prof. Dr. Duran Bülbül made the following statements to 12punto regarding inflation and stagflation:

"In reality, inflation is not falling in our country. If inflation had fallen, prices should also have fallen in real terms, and therefore taxes should have been reduced. Interest rates should have been lowered. However, the political power continues to raise prices with all its might. This is a contradiction in itself. Another contradiction is that if inflation were falling, we would not see businesses collapsing and going bankrupt. Yet, we are seeing this a lot lately. The result of this is deep unemployment and deep poverty. In other words, the economy is contracting and shrinking."

"THEY ARE SELLING WITH HIGH PROFITS"

Bülbül said, "Another problem is that there is a serious gap between the policy rate and market interest rates at banks. The most fundamental problem is that the financial oligarchy (banks) has officially carried out an operation on the market, and the biggest reason for this is that the political power lowered the policy rate by 3 points within itself, which it could not lower otherwise. They were collecting money at approximately 50 percent, but now they are collecting it at 47 percent. They then go and sell this to the Treasury. The reason they sell to the Treasury is that they are selling risk-free money. Because there is a guarantee of return on this money. Like consumer loans, like personal loans... There is no risk of default. They are selling with high profits, and the political power knows this. In fact, the government is using banks as subcontractors to cover the Treasury's deficits," he said.

"THE ECONOMY HAS SERIOUSLY ENTERED SLUMPFLATION"

Stating that production in the country will continue to decline, Bülbül said, "The economy has seriously entered a state of slumpflation. More accurately, the economy is experiencing slumpflation at one moment and stagflation at another. What is happening here is not a success of the political power; a serious stagnation is being experienced. The meaning of this is as follows: The poor will become poorer, the destitute will become more destitute, and the rich will become richer. The basis of this policy is this: The economy is gradually contracting, and as it contracts, we will face more unemployment. Production will continue to fall. The Turkish economy is an economy that exports as it imports, an economy that produces as it imports."

"TURKISH INDUSTRY IS A PATCHWORK INDUSTRY"

Expressing that high-quality goods cannot be produced in the Turkish industry, Prof. Dr. Duran Bülbül said, "Turkish industry is a patchwork industry. That is, it cannot produce high-quality goods; it produces goods with low quality and low competitiveness. Therefore, we cannot compete with foreign goods. We cannot produce goods with high innovation and R&D value. That is why we import goods, patch them up here, and re-export them," he said.

Stating that the political power has not done anything positive in its economic policy, Bülbül said, "The political power has not implemented any economic model, nor has it taken any measures. It thinks it is lowering inflation just by raising prices and hiking costs, but no, inflation has not fallen; it continues to rise. Along with this, the poor continue to become even poorer."