Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the successive governments of the “Justice and Development” party in the rule of the country since 2002 have risen to Turkey to the ranks of trillion dollars. This came in a speech delivered today, Sunday, during his participation in the eighth general conference of the “Justice and Development” party in Ankara.
In his speech, the Turkish president enumerated the economic achievements that his country achieved during the 22 years of the party’s rule of the country, the most prominent of which was:
- We raised our national income in dollars 6 times by strengthening investment, production and export, and we rose to Turkey to the ranks of trillion dollars.
- He explained that the per capita income in Türkiye rose to 13 thousand and 243 dollars at the end of 2023 and that this number will exceed 15 thousand dollars when the data of 2024 is announced.
- He added that it is expected that the decrease in inflation will continue, and therefore purchasing power will increase and 85 million people will witness the positive impact of this matter.
- He pointed out that the reserves of the Turkish Central Bank exceeded 173 billion dollars and reached the highest level of the republic.
- He pointed out that Türkiye is on the threshold of a major economic leap, and that the developments of the region would pave and speed up the pace of this jump.
- He stated that Türkiye has become the first in the world in the production of drones and 11th in the exports of defense industries.
- He stated that Türkiye’s share of the global economy increased from 0.7% to 1.1%.
- He said that industrial value -added products increased from 95 billion dollars to $ 320 billion.
- He mentioned that in 2023 Türkiye became the fourth largest economy in Europe and the 11th globally, given the purchasing power.
- Erdogan stressed that the governments of the Justice and Development Party have strengthened the strength of Türkiye in many sectors, the most important of which are defense industries, the auto, agriculture and tourism industry.
- Regarding the tourism sector, Erdogan said: “We rose to the fourth place in Europe and the fifth in the world in tourism. Last year, we hosted more than 62 million tourists and achieved more than 61 billion dollars of tourism revenues.”
- He also explained that his country has achieved a great achievement in attracting foreign investments, saying: “Türkiye has been able to attract investments of $ 15.1 billion until 2002, and during the past 22 years, this number exceeded 272 billion dollars.”
And the end of last year, Erdogan confirmed that the minimum wage increases will continue to outperform inflation rates during the year 2025, with the aim of protecting the purchasing power of workers in light of the continued inflationary pressures.
Ankara hopes that “deliberate” wages will be in line with the central bank’s expectations that indicate a decrease in inflation to 21% by the end of 2025.
The minimum wage increased in 2023 by a large rate of 107%, exceeding the annual inflation rate of 65% at the time.
In the year 2024, wages increased by 49%, which exceeds the rate of inflation recorded during the year, which reached 44.38%.
At the beginning of last month, Turkish Minister of Treasury and Finance, Muhammad Shimashk, confirmed that inflation recorded 1% in December 2024, which is its lowest level in the last 19 months.
“The annual inflation decreased to 44.4%, and thus decreased 20 points compared to inflation at the end of 2022 and 2023,” she said.
Shimashk stressed that inflation will continue to decrease, expecting that it will be in line with the ministry’s goal in 2025.
He explained that resolving the living problems of citizens is the top of their priorities.
