President Erdogan pledged to continue interest rate cuts that have made the Turkish lira the world’s worst performing currency over the past three months, referring to Islamic proscriptions on usury as a basis for his new policy push.
“What is it? We are lowering interest rates. Don’t expect anything else from me,” Erdogan said Sunday in televised comments from Istanbul. “As a Muslim, I’ll continue to do what is required by nas,” Erdogan said, using an Arabic word used in Turkish to refer to Islamic teachings.
For a second time in a month, Erdogan invoked religion to justify the current monetary stance of lowering the policy rate to boost investments and economic growth while slashing inflation.
As Bloomberg reports the President repeated his claim that TL’s collapse is the outcome of an economic siege and Turkey won’t back down from its new economic policy.
“Of course, we know the impact from price increases on people’s daily lives. We are of course aware of the instability caused by the lira’s fluctuations and its impact on prices. But we will put up resistance against these. I announce from here: there is no backing down.”
Replying Turkey’s key industrialists that called for the end of the lower rate policy and asked for orthodox measures to stabilize the lira’s exchange rate, Erdogan’s words were even harsher. .
Erdogan warned them that “they won’t be able to challenge the government. He said “you are working to put in power a government that you can exploit. This nation will not allow you to do that,” he said.
Bloomberg