President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday said Türkiye would enhance the effectiveness of monetary policy through fiscal discipline, with a strong focus on combatting stubbornly elevated inflation.
"We will increase the effectiveness of monetary policy through fiscal discipline and provide strong support in the fight against inflation," Erdoğan told a general assembly meeting of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) in Ankara.
The annual inflation rate currently runs at nearly 70% and is expected to peak at 75%-76% in May before falling to 38% at year-end, according to the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye's (CBRT) forecast.
Following last year's presidential and parliamentary elections, Türkiye moved away from years of easing monetary policy. The central bank embarked on an aggressive rate hike cycle, raising its benchmark policy rate by 4,150 basis points to 50% since last June.
The government has endorsed an economic program centered around taming inflation, rebuilding foreign exchange reserves and curbing current account and budget deficits.
Erdoğan said they have "diligently followed this road map for the past 11 months."
He stressed the government is taking "critical steps" to strengthen the medium-term economic program that it released last September.
He recalled a package of savings measures the government announced last week.
Erdoğan said key focuses include increasing public savings, accelerating structural reforms and allocating more investment funds to priority areas like food, agriculture, green and digital transformation.
The package is aimed at curbing spending to increase efficiency within the public sector and support efforts to tackle inflation.
"All public institutions and personnel are obliged to adhere to savings measures without exception," Erdoğan asserted.
"The dissemination of a culture of saving, coupled with widespread societal adoption, will accelerate improvements in the current account deficit."
The president also said the recent gradual decline in Türkiye's risk premium has helped improve the access of Turkish businesses to foreign financing.
The country's five-year credit default swaps (CDS) – a form of insurance for bondholders – dipped below 280 basis points last week to the lowest level since February 2020.
