Treasury and Finance Minister Albayrak unveils Medium Term Program
Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak announces the Medium Term Program (MTP) in Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 20, 2018. (EPA Photo)


Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak on Thursday unveiled the Medium Term Program (MTP) for the Turkish economy, announcing the government's goals for inflation, growth and unemployment for the next three years.

According to Albayrak, the government's expectations for economic growth was 3.8 percent in 2018, 2.3 percent in 2019, 3.5 percent in 2020 and 5 percent in 2021.

"Our main goal is to secure a sustainable 5-percent growth from 2021," the minister said.

The government expects the annual inflation rate to stand at 20.8 percent in 2018, 15.9 percent in 2019 before bringing it down to single digits in 2020 — 9.8 percent.

Due to the wide-ranging program to tackle inflation it will fall to 6 percent in 2021, Albayrak said.

The minister said Turkey will provide new employment opportunities for 2 million people by 2021 as part of the MTP as unemployment rate is expected to drop to 10.8 percent three years from now.

Albayrak stressed that the downward trend in current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio will continue, saying next year it will be brought down to 3.3 percent, and to 2.6 percent in 2021.

Meanwhile, budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio is projected at 1.8 percent in 2018 and will slide to 1.7 percent in 2021.