Vocational School of Justice
BEWARE OF ECONOMY AFTER THE ELECTIONS
Halit Soydan, Lecturer at IUE Department of Economics, and Former Managing Director of Yapı Kredi and Garanti Banks, stated that economy was not the focal point prior to the general elections on June 7, and he said, “We should really be wondering about what’s going to happen in economy after the elections. Those, who are on the verge of making strategic decisions, better wait till after June 7.”
Soydan, who indicated that the test for democracy continued, and all of the party representatives participating in the election acted on the ‘More freedom, more extensive democracy’ discourse, said that equilibrium would bring about stability, and that would bring about confidence. There was not much mobility in terms of economy just short of 2 months to the elections, pointed Soydan. “The last official data available is inflation figures for March 2015. Consumer price index reached up to 7.61 %. Today’s conditions suggest that the Turkish Central Bank would not be able to reduce the interest rates even if it wanted. On the other hand, 2014 growth rate was a little under the expected, about 2.9 %. Yet, the target was predicted as 3.3% in revised ‘Medium Term Program’”, said Soydan.
‘Nobody Can Jump Start Economy in 2 Months’
Soydan stated that the 62nd government did not have an ‘election economy’ and he stated the following:
“No one can jump start economy in 2 months even if they wanted. Sprouting period in any kind of state support is at least six months when it comes to investments. Besides, foreign currencies are also among the factors that affect economies in a global world, they are intertwined with the behaviors and expectations of global actors. For example, dollar is going up recently, whereas Euro is going down. There are people who are waiting for the continuation of this. We have neither the power nor the will to change or determine the foreign currency reciprocal values on our own. Average daily turnover for foreign exchange is $ 5.3 trillion. Manipulation is not possible due to this depth. We should really be wondering about what’s going to happen in economy after the elections. Those, who are on the verge of making strategic decisions, better wait till after June 7.”