Mehmet Şimşek

There will be no change in the inflation basket in Turkey, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said, rejecting earlier reports about a potential decrease in the share of food prices, even though the economy minister finds the share of food prices quite high. 

The share of food prices in the inflation basket will be decreased from 24 to 20 percent by the end of the year to ease consumer price increases, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said, daily Habertürk reported Oct. 17. 

The government recently restructured its food committee in line with its fight against stubbornly rising food prices, which have pushed up the inflation rate. 

Former Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan died early on Oct. 12 after suffering health problems. He was 70.
Unakıtan served as the finance minister for three consecutive terms in the 58th, 59th and 60th government, starting in 2002 before leaving the post in 2009.

The former politician underwent a bypass operation in 2009 and a kidney transplant in 2013.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek will visit the United States on Oct. 5-9 to attend the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meetings, according to a written statement by the Treasuries on Oct. 5.

Turkey has ratified the payment of $1 million to the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, the Official Gazette reported on Oct. 4.      

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek said they considered Moody's rating cut important: "We take the rating cut seriously. We will make an effort to increase our rating in the medium and long term."  

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said the July 15 coup attempt was not the main cause behind the Moody's rating downgrade but rather that ongoing structural problems were to blame, adding that Turkey would overcome these issues and make efforts to address structural problems rather than succumb to emotions after the downgrade.

Credit ratings agency Moody's has downgraded Turkey's sovereign credit rating to non-investment grade.

What does that mean? This is an issue for economists and I am not an economist.

So why am I writing about this subject? I do so because I find the statement after the decision by Mehmet Şimşek, the deputy prime minister responsible for the economy, very important.

Turkey's official growth target of 4.5 percent this year could be revised downward in the medium-term economic program, mainly due to security concerns and the failed coup attempt of July 15, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said. 

He also noted that the forecast for the current account gap could be increased. 

Turkish gross domestic product grew by 3.1 percent in the second quarter of 2016, lower than forecasts of around 3.4 percent, amid a decline in industrial investments and foreign demand, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Sept. 9. 

Turkey's GDP growth was 3.9 percent in the first half of the year.