Turkey primed for global economic challenges: Albayrak

By Hakan Copur, Kasim İleri and Safvan Allahverdi

NEW YORK (AA) - Turkey is a well-prepared country in the most challenging period for the global economic system, especially approaching global challenges, Turkey's treasury and finance minister said Wednesday.

“During the rebalancing phase, which we named so, our focus has been addressing major vulnerabilities of the economy and strengthening confidence,” said Berat Albayrak, speaking on the sidelines of the 74th UN General Assembly.

Albayrak stressed that Turkey has achieved a remarkable rebalancing process in the economy since the announcement of the economic program in September 2018.

“The annual inflation rate has declined considerably, the current account has improved considerably and economic activity has begun to recover starting in the third quarter,” he added.

Albayrak went on to say that Turkey kept implementing structural reforms to boost the recovery and bolster the economy in the long term.

“We have achieved significant progress on the inflation front in just a year, bringing down inflation by 10% from 25% in October 2018 to 15% in August 2019,” he said.

“Turkey didn’t take a single cent [from the IMF] during that time.”

*Erdogan Cagatay Zontur from Ankara contributed to this story.