Turkish vice president meets with international investors in UK

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz has met with international investors and fund managers at the London Stock Exchange in the British capital.

During his address at the event on Tuesday, which was organised by Globalturk Capital, he spoke about developments in the Turkish economy and the steps taken to strengthen it.

Pointing to economic growth forecasts of 3 percent in 2024, Yilmaz noted that Türkiye has resolutely implemented policies and measures that support growth.

"Türkiye grew by 4.7 percent in the first nine months of 2023, and we expect our yearly growth rate to be around 4.4 percent as we envisioned in our medium term program (MTP)," he said, reminding that over the past 20 years, Türkiye has shown "remarkable economic growth" with an average annual rate of 5.4 percent.

He said that goods exports broke the historic record with $256 billion last year and exceeded the country's MTP projections.

“Our services exports reached the level of $100 billion last year, and our targets have been achieved. Tourism revenues especially are quite satisfactory. Despite all these demand problems globally and geopolitical developments, we exceeded 57 million tourists last year, and our tourism revenue was around $54 billion."

Single-digit inflation

Taking into consideration last year's unemployment figures, Yilmaz pointed out that the year-end unemployment expectation will be below 10 percent, in single digits, and said that while the budget deficit to national income ratio was projected as 6.4 percent, it was realised at 5.4 percent last year.

Noting that the Central Bank’s reserves have reached $134 billion, he said international capital inflow accelerated with the decrease in the volatility in the exchange rate and financial conditions improved.

"Our policies, especially our updated policies, have strengthened the stability of our currency and reduced the volatility in our foreign exchange markets," he said.

Yilmaz said he believes that with the country's new policies and political environment, Türkiye can benefit from the increased capital inflow, especially with the success achieved after the presidential and general elections last May.

Diversity of investments

Noting that there are almost 80,000 international companies operating in Türkiye, Yilmaz said that the country has attracted around $260 billion in foreign direct investments over the last two decades.

"We take all necessary steps to establish an environment in which the investment climate has improved, predictability for investors will increase and investors' expectations will be met at a higher level," he noted.

He said Türkiye is strategically positioned at the crossroads of the three continents and serves as a central hub for significant trade, energy and other economic activities, adding the country is also listed among the top 10 economies having the largest networks of free trade agreements.

"Our goal is to increase the quality and diversity of the investments and attract more value added investments to Türkiye. Thus, e-mobility, green energy, life sciences, chemicals, petrochemicals, ICT machinery and high quality manufacturing technologies, defence and aviation are among the priority sectors we support," said Yilmaz.