Our President Abdurrahman Kaan assessed the statements of Minister of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak regarding the New Economy Program (2021-2023) (NEP), prepared under the main theme of "New Rebalancing, New Normal, New Economy”.
President Kaan said the following:
"For 2020, a period in which we targeted 5 percent growth before the pandemic process, at the stage we have reached today we can speak of a growth target of 0.3 percent. We can assess from the same perspective the updating to 10.5 percent of the year-end inflation rate, which had been targeted at 8.5 percent in the previous NEP. In our opinion, these revisions are by no means an indicator of failure for the Turkish economy; they are reasonable changes that overlap with market realities. Among the G20 countries, whose average contraction rates in the second quarter of the year were 12.5 percent, Türkiye had diverged positively with a contraction of 9.9 percent.
It is a reasonable scenario for the economic growth rate in 2020 to come out slightly positive as foreseen in the NEP. Thus we can estimate that, due to the base effect, the Turkish economy in 2021 will not fall far short of the 5.8 percent target. Nevertheless, in the continuing period, for economic growth to be realized at the level of 5 percent, both economic effectiveness and productivity need to increase.
It will be necessary to diversify all sectors affected positively or negatively by the global pandemic and to ensure their sustainability in times of crisis. At the same time, many of the threats that emerged during the pandemic process should be assessed as temporary, and rather than these threats we should focus on sectors with high development potential for the post-pandemic period.
Here the priority develops on the matter of labor and raw materials. We believe that if Türkiye is more diligent in the field of raw materials, it will seriously increase its exports. In addition, it is foreseen that if the gains obtained through the incentives provided in our country are converted into investment and production is rapidly begun, imports will decrease and, in this context, exports will follow a positive course.
As MÜSİAD, we support the programs that will be created and that have been created for the synchronization of investment, production and trade. In line with developments, we aim to make an important contribution to production through our work on directing SMEs to incubation centers and establishing new production centers.
The New Economy Program for the 2021-2023 period, in which we see that problems have been correctly identified and realistic measures have been put forward, is in the nature of a road map that will prepare our country for 2023. We can state that, with the growth, financial stability, unemployment, current balance, inflation and budget balance targets included in the program and with the mutually consistent monetary and fiscal policies to be implemented toward these targets, the economy will enter a period of strong growth once again and will bring Türkiye closer to its targets for its 100th year."