Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek said that the nation’s economy will see better conditions going forward and promised to push ahead with new reforms that he considers the main drivers for growth.
Turkey has been rattled by political instability in recent years including five elections in three years, terror attacks and a government crackdown on opponents after an attempted coup last July.
“The worst is behind us,” Simsek said during a panel discussion at the International Monetary Fund spring meetings on Thursday. “We will do much better going forward.”
Talks between the European Union and Turkey over deeper trade integration are expected to begin this year, Simsek said. “We have a customs union with the EU, but we want to expand it and upgrade,” he said. “Hopefully sometime this year we will begin negotiations.”
Turkey Economy
Simsek, a leading architect of Turkey’s economic agenda over the past decade, has long promised a series of reforms to make the $857 billion economy grow faster and reduce a current-account deficit that leaves the country vulnerable to the swings of foreign-currency inflows.
Bloomberg