Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek on Friday wrapped up his trip to London after engaging with investors at a series of meetings, where participants said Türkiye stood out positively among emerging markets.
As part of the meetings organized by investment banks JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Dome Group, Simsek met with hundreds of investors. He had engaged with portfolio investors, major global investment funds and credit rating agencies.
There was little commentary in the Turkish press about the proceedings in London, which is strange because pro-AKP media tends to embellish compliments paid by international fund managers to Turkey and its one year old economic stabilization program.
International press, too, paid little attention to Simsek’s London campaign, perhaps because meetings were closed to the press.
PA Turkey could only find the following references to the visit, which suggest Simsek achieved some success in convincing money managers:
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek met with investors at a Deutsche Bank-organised investor meeting in London on Thursday and participants said Turkey stood out positively among emerging markets, a meeting participant said.
He said Simsek spoke about what has been done in the Turkish economy in the last 12 months and the potential steps to be taken in the next year and in the long term.
Speaking on Thursday at an event in London organised by the Chatham House think tank, Simsek said Turkey is on the verge of a sharp fall in inflation, predicting it would slow to mid-teen levels next year and help bring more international investment, according to Reuters.
Turkey wants to stick with its “core” trade partners such Europe rather than decouple and join the likes of China, Russia, India and Brazil in the so-called BRICS group, its finance minister Mehmet Simsek said on Thursday.
Speaking at an event in London organised by the Chatham House think tank Simsek said that BRICS was mainly a “dialogue platform” currently rather than a formal economic bloc like the European Union that Turkey has said it would like to join.
The EU, “remains our core partner in terms of trade investments, tourism flows, so we cannot afford to decouple,” he said.
“So we remain focused (on the EU), but that doesn’t mean we do not look at alternatives if they present value”, reported Hellenic Shipping Lines.
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