Abdurrahman Kaan, the head of Turkey’s conservative Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD), told the state-run Anadolu news agency on Monday an entrepreneurial group with $40 billion could easily buy out one quarter of all private Turkish firms.
“Our president also stated that no one will ever find Turkey in this position again,” Kaan said, referring to the Turkish lira’s recent record low value.
Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak also said on July 23 that Turkey would never be that “cheap” for investors again, adding that higher costs would be happening “very soon.”
The lira’s valuation against the US dollar was around 3.80 in January but climbed towards 4.90 today.
Many economists advised Turkey’s central bank to raise interest rates; however, the bank decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at its latest monetary policy committee meeting on July 24.
MÜSİAD Chair Kaan said hiking interest rates was not a factor in keeping the Turkish lira’s valuation against foreign currencies low, echoing the words of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“When we control the high inflation, we’ll also be able to control value losses in the lira,” he said, adding that increasing domestic production would help to keep inflation in a downward trend.