Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz: We will support investments to increase export potential

Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz attended the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO) November Assembly Meeting.

In his speech there, Yılmaz stated that qualified investments would be supported, saying, "The Central Bank Governor will soon share with the public the implementation details of the Investment Commitment Advance Credit for investments with high added value that increase our export potential."

Underlining that they aim to increase the share of medium-high and high-technology products in both production and exports in the coming period, Yılmaz pointed out that carbon trading will take place within Turkey.

Highlights from Yılmaz's speech at the ISO Assembly Meeting are as follows:

The fact that Istanbul, which hosts 19 percent of the population and more than 20 percent of employment, accounts for over 30 percent of the national income shows that the unit added value produced is higher.

Indeed, as of 2021, the national income per capita in Istanbul is 63 percent above the Turkey average.

We allocated 762 billion TL from the budget in 2023 and 1 trillion 28 billion TL in 2024 for the reduction of disaster risks, the rapid elimination of damages caused by earthquakes, and the needs of our citizens living in the earthquake zone.

Developed countries are expected to lose significant momentum in growth, with projected growth of only around 1.5 percent in 2023 and 2024.

The Turkish economy proved its resilience against shocks caused by negative global developments in 2022, achieving 13 years of uninterrupted growth with an annual growth rate of 5.5 percent. Currently, the annualized national income level has exceeded 1 trillion dollars.

"WE ARE CURRENTLY THE 11TH LARGEST ECONOMY BY PURCHASING POWER PARITY"

We are currently the 11th largest economy by purchasing power parity and the 17th largest economy in nominal terms.

The growth rate was recorded at 3.9 percent in the first half of 2023. With the positive outlook in tourism and domestic demand in the second half of the year, 4.4 percent growth is projected for 2023.

In 2024, it is expected that a growth rate of 4 percent will be reached, and the trend of uninterrupted growth in the post-global crisis period will continue.

In our forecasts for the coming period, especially after 2024, a controlled increase in consumption is foreseen, and it is estimated that there will be a consumption increase generally lower than the national income growth, which does not support inflation in this period.

In this context, a growth target of 4.5 percent in 2025 and 5 percent in 2026 is set. Thus, an average annual growth of 4.5 percent is targeted for the 2024-2026 period.

We aim to enter the high-income group of countries with 12,875 dollars per capita income in 2024, 13,717 dollars in 2025, and 14,855 dollars in 2026. We aim to exceed 1.3 trillion dollars in national income in 2026.

We will increase employment by an annual average of 900 thousand people over the 3-year period, and by 2.7 million people in 3 years. During this period, we will increase the labor force participation rate by 2 points while reducing unemployment to the 9.3 percent level.

While we projected a year-end inflation target of 33 percent in the Medium-Term Program (OVP) for 2024, the Central Bank's inflation target in the latest inflation report is around 36 percent.

"INFLATION WILL BE SINGLE DIGIT"

With the measures we have foreseen in the Medium-Term Program, we will reduce inflation to single digits in 2026.

We are targeting export revenues exceeding 300 billion dollars and tourism revenues exceeding 70 billion dollars in 2026. We will reduce the current account deficit, which was 4 percent in 2023, to 2.3 percent in 2026.

We will soon share the implementation details of the Investment Commitment Advance Credit for investments with high added value that increase our export potential with the public.

In the coming period, we aim to increase the share of medium-high and high-technology products in both production and exports.