Deputy PM Babacan says 9.9 percent unemployment rate is in line with 2014 targets.
Turkey’s Central Bank’s policy decisions have helped to calm down the volatility of markets and encourage capital inflows since January 27, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday.
In a television interview, Babacan praised the Central Bank’s policy of using an interest rate corridor and said it meant that recent events in Turkey – like the Gezi park protests, the U.S. FED’s decision to taper quantitative easing and the 17 December events – did not result in large capital outflows.
“From 27 January to 13 February, $3.9 billion came to Turkey (through the stock market). I believe the recent calm of exchange currencies is related to this inflow. The treasury’s ability to pay its debts is the real important thing. Turkey’s status is very strong in this regard,” Babacan said.
In terms of unemployment rates, he said that there was an increasing upward trend in the June-October period but this trend ended in the last two months. He emphasized that the last unemployment rate recorded at 9.9 percent is in line with 2014 targets which are 9.5 percent unemployment rate and 4 percent growth rate.
Regarding the current account deficit (CAR) exceeding expectations, Babacan pointed out that $3 billion of deviation in CAR is linked to the gold trade and stressed that CAR excluding gold has been shrinking for sometime although the trend is slowing down but added that the deterioration has not begun yet.
AA
