Erdogan launches election campaign with pledge to slash Turkey inflation
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine at a meeting in Ankara on April 11 to announce his AK Party's election manifesto, which said it aims for annual economic growth of 5.5 per cent in 2024 to 2028.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ANKARA – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched his re-election campaign on Tuesday with a party pledge to slash inflation to single digits and boost growth, as he seeks to extend his two decades in power in a May 14 vote.
Mr Erdogan is facing the biggest political challenge since his AK Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, with polls showing support sagging in recent years after unorthodox economic policies hobbled Turkey’s lira currency and sent inflation surging.
Even so, the President repeated his economic mantra that investment, production, exports and an eventual current account surplus would drive gross domestic product (GDP).
“We will bring inflation back down to single digits and definitely save our country from this problem,” he told a stadium crowd in Ankara.
Mr Erdogan’s aggressive interest rate cuts sent inflation to a 24-year peak above 85 per cent last October
“We will improve the investment further with a structure based on a free-market economy integrated with the world,” the ruling party’s manifesto said, aiming for annual growth of 5.5 per cent in 2024 to 2028, and GDP of US$1.5 trillion (S$2 trillion) by end-2028.
Mr Erdogan said last week that a team was working on strengthening economic policies under the coordination of former economic czar Mehmet Simsek, who is well respected by international investors.
Some AKP members have said they wanted Mr Simsek to champion a pivot to more free-market policies after years of unorthodoxy under Mr Erdogan.
However, the manifesto made no direct reference to a return to orthodoxy, and said the low-rate policy was the main driver of entrepreneurs investing in the real sector and creating jobs.
In the presidential election in May, Mr Erdogan will be up against main opposition alliance candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
In the latest survey from Metropoll, 42.6 per cent of respondents said they would vote for Mr Kilicdaroglu and 41.1 per cent for Mr Erdogan in first-round voting, with the other two presidential candidates receiving a total of 7.2 per cent support.
Support for Mr Erdogan dipped slightly after February’s devastating earthquake
“Our priority in the upcoming period will be to restore our cities which were devastated,” Mr Erdogan said, adding that the government aims to build 650,000 apartments for survivors.
On foreign policy, Mr Erdogan said the AKP would continue normalising relations in the region and aim to build an “axis of Turkey”. Ankara recently took steps to mend relations with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria after years of tension.
“We can negotiate with both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war, make concrete progress such as the grain corridor and prisoner exchange, and we can still speak of the possibility of peace,” Mr Erdogan said. REUTERS
