Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati on Saturday will announce new measures aimed at countering price rises and getting households to bring gold holdings into the financial system, media said Thursday.
The package will also involve Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) support, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.
Top company executives, the heads of banks and business group representatives are set to attend the event, which comes after Nebati this week pitched Turkey’s new economic policy in London.
In a series of meetings with investors and executives this week, the minister pledged to keep the Turkish lira stable, bring inflation down to single digits and stem dollarization.
The government has been endorsing a model based on lower borrowing costs, saying credit, exports and investment will help the country weather inflation. Erdoğan has said the new economic path will also eventually help Turkey solve its chronic current account deficit problem and contribute to stabilizing the lira.
To support the drive, Turkey’s central bank has slashed its interest rates by 500 basis points since September to 14%, before pausing the easing cycle last month.
Turkey’s annual inflation soared to a 20-year high of 48.69% in January, according to official data. The government has pledged to act and vowed to safeguard households against soaring prices.
The lira has been broadly stable since the start of the year following a 44% decline in 2021. It had hit a record low of 18.4 against the United States dollar in December but rebounded after Erdoğan’s announcement of a scheme to boost lira deposits by protecting them against depreciation.
The scheme aimed at encouraging locals to convert their foreign currency savings into lira under a deposit protection plan, compensating depositors for any losses due to lira depreciation.
The initiative had helped the currency rally sharply to just over 10 and then settle at current levels just under 14 to the dollar.
In London, Nebati was cited as saying that Ankara was set to unveil a new scheme to encourage households to convert gold holdings into lira and bring "under-the-mattress" gold into the banking system.
The "under-the-mattress" term refers to a long-held tradition in Turkey of turning to gold to safeguard wealth and storing it at home.
Nebati was quoted as speaking of the plans to ensure part of the $250 billion to $350 billion worth of gold held by Turkish households would find its way into the domestic saving system.
The package to be announced on Saturday is said to also include incentives for exports and production, with a selective financing package via the KGF, which is designed to stimulate the economy by guaranteeing loans to small- and medium-sized (SME) companies.
