Turkiye introduces new measures to tackle inflation: Finance minister

The measures will raise efficiency in the public sector, offer savings, implement a strong monitoring, auditing, reporting and sanction model, and cover the entire public, he said.

Public savings, spending discipline in the budget and efficiency in public investments are the three main axes of spending measures, he asserted.

Reducing high cost of living and inflation to single digits are priorities, Simsek told a press conference, stressing that price stability is the most important component of prosperity and sustainable high growth.

Latest TurkStat data show the country’s annual inflation rate rose to 69.8 per cent in April from 68.5 per cent in March.

The government's medium-term economic programme released last September projected the year-end inflation rate to come in at 33 per cent this year, 15.2 per cent in 2025 and 8.5 per cent in 2026.

"With fiscal discipline, we will allocate more resources to natural disasters, green and digital transformation. We will ensure that our country borrows at more reasonable costs by reducing the country risk premium, and we will improve intergenerational justice by borrowing less," he was quoted as saying by domestic media outlets.

"We will focus on eight priority areas in public spending such as vehicles, buildings, public employment, efficiency in administrative structuring, overseas temporary assignment expenses, energy and waste management, communication expenses, and other current expenses," he said.

The government will cut 10 per cent in goods and services purchase appropriations and 15 per cent in investment appropriations in the budget, excluding earthquakes and compulsory expenditures, he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)