Turkey’s economic bureaucracy finds Albayrak’s new package untimely, unnecessary – DW

The latest package of measures, worth 30 billion liras ($4.9 billion), will provide financing to help importers such as manufacturers, who have seen costs surge during a lira sell-off.

Turkish bureaucrats working in the Presidency’s Strategy and Budget Department told DW that they learned the new measures while watching Albayrak on television.

“The economy bureaucracy, who emphasise that they were not consulted, find the package ‘untimely and unnecessary’. Bureaucrats, who say that the priority should not be a credit expansion through state-run banks, indicate that the priority instead should be monitoring non-performing loans provided by state-run banks,” DW said, without revealing the names of the bureaucrats.

An unnamed official working in the Central Bank of Turkey told DW that the package was not welcomed due to the current situation as many expected different types of measures.

“It is a right step but its timing is problematic. I wish this was done two years ago through Credit Guarantee Fund by prioritising value-added (goods) and exports for the available 200 billion lira ($32.8 billion) resource, then it […] in 2018 and has fallen a further 13 percent this year.

Wolfango Piccoli, co-president of Teneo Risk, said that Albayrak’s new package was another wrong attempt that would prompt further discussions on Turkey’s credibility.

“What Turkey needs at this moment is not providing more loans, but to implement policies that will ensure investors’ confidence and economic stability,” Piccoli said.