Turkey: Opposition faults government economic policy

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - A Turkish opposition leader on Tuesday criticized the government's economic administration model, urging investments for job creation and sustainable development.

"Investments in Turkey should rise for sustainable development, some new working areas for jobless citizens should be created, and interest rates should be immediately cut," Meral Aksener, Good (IYI) Party leader, told her party's parliamentary group.

She questioned the existing economic model "suggested to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by some visionless people," and also criticized the country's finance minister.

Unemployment in Turkey was 13.3% in November 2019, up 1 percentage point from the same month of the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Feb. 10.

The government agency said that the number of jobless people age 15 and over in the country rose to 4.3 million by the end of the month – a rise of 327,000 from November 2018.

The Turkish government targets a 12.9% unemployment rate for 2020 under its economic program announced last September. The program estimates the unemployment rate will decrease gradually – 9.8% – by 2022.