UPDATE - Turkey's economy expected to grow by 5% in 2022: Vice president

ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM VICE PRESIDENT

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economy is expected to grow by 5% in 2022, the country's vice president said Monday.

"With the policy measures taken [by the Turkish government], we foresee that our economy will grow by 5% in 2022. Despite the developments in the exchange rate and the overall level of prices at the global and domestic levels, we remain committed to stabilizing the exchange rate and fighting inflation," Fuat Oktay told lawmakers on the first day of the 2022 budget debate.

Oktay asserted that the country will never compromise on the financial transparency that forms “the main backbone of accountability."

"Our commitment to fiscal discipline continues in the same way today as it was before. Thus, public finance will continue to be the strongest anchor of the Turkish economy," he added.

Budget expenditures have been projected at 1.750 trillion liras ($135.4 billion) and budget revenues at 1.472 billion liras ($113.9 million)

The budget deficit for next year has been projected at 278 billion liras (nearly $21 billion).

The budget for 2022 will be the 20th of the AK Party government, which has been in power for nearly two decades.

Responding to lawmakers' questions during the 2022 budget proposal debates, Oktay said they would never allow the manipulation of exchange rates in Turkey.

He noted that the government was aware of opportunists "who cause the exchange rate to rise again with manipulative movements."

"We will definitely not allow [such actions by] these opportunists who try to put our economy in a vicious circle," he added.

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 interest rate cuts.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the rate cuts 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, pledging that his policies will lead to high growth and broad-based prosperity.

Amid rising inflation, he has promised measures to help low-income citizens "whose purchasing power has decreased."