Turkey: Main opposition leader criticizes government's interest rate policy

Turkey: Main opposition leader criticizes government's interest rate policy

The only hope of all moneylenders and loan sharks is the government, claims Kemal Kilicdaroglu

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s main opposition leader on Monday criticized the president's policy in favor of cutting interest rates.

"The only hope of all moneylenders and loan sharks is [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. Erdogan is the guarantee and hope of all moneylenders," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), claimed in a speech during a debate over the 2022 budget bill.

Kilicdaroglu noted that interest payments rose from 180 billion Turkish liras ($13.03 billion) in the last budget to 240 billion Turkish liras ($17.37 billion) in the 2022 budget bill.

"Were you against interest? How is this happening?" Kilicdaroglu asked.

Recent jumps in inflation and losses in the value of the Turkish currency, the lira, have led opposition parties to attack the government's economic policy, including favoring interest rate cuts.

Erdogan has said the rate cuts – done by the independent Central Bank – are part of his "new economic model" and a "war of economic liberation" for Turkey.

"Interest rates are the reason, inflation is the result," Erdogan has argued repeatedly, pledging that his policies will lead to high growth and broad-based prosperity.

Kilicdaroglu said that Turkish citizens are in debt with the US dollar. "You charge me, you charge the grandchildren too. Moreover, what does this have to do with morality and nationalism?" he asked.

"This budget is a budget that takes money from the poor and transfers it to a handful of rich people, a handful of usurers, a handful of dollar barons," he added.

The CHP leader said his party would vote against the government budget bill.

The government's budget proposal projects 1.75 trillion liras ($135.4 billion) in expenditures and 1.472 billion liras ($113.9 million) in revenues for next year.

It places the country's deficit at 278 billion liras (nearly $21 billion).

This will be the 20th budget bill under a Justice and Development (AK) Party government, which has been in power for nearly two decades.

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