Top business group criticizes government over economy management, İstanbul Convention exit

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A leading official with the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD), the largest business group in the coıuntry, has criticized the government over its economy management, citing "uncertainty" caused by its recent moves.

"All of us are trying to understand and interpret the unexpected developments that came one after the other in the last months and predict the future," said Tuncay Özilhan, the association's High Advisory Council head, during an online meeting of the group today (March 30).

"Without the assumption that institutional structures work as foreseen, how is it possible to know what will happen tomorrow? If the declared rules change tomorrow, how are the decisions concerning tomorrow made?" he remarked.

The past few months saw abrupt changes in the country's senior economic officials, including the Central Bank head and the finance minister.

On November 8, Berat Albayrak, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's son-in-law, resigned as the finance minister in a move that followed the appointment of Naci Ağbal as the Central Bank governor.

Ağbal's term lasted only four-and-a-half months as he was replaced on March 20 with Şahap Kavcıoğlu, a pro-government columnist, following an interest rate hike.

The president also replaced the deputy governor of the Central Bank in the early hours of today.

"Turkey needs a stable currency, price stability and lower unemployment, Özilhan said. "High interest rates are the result of the savings gap."

"Investors only come to a country that is stable, with financial discipline, not to a country that changes rules in a fortnight," he added. "European firms want to diversify their supply chains, Turkey's role can become more important. But for that to happen, Turkey has to deal with it's issues.''

Özilhan also touched upon Erdoğan's overnight decision to pull Turkey out of the İstanbul Convention, a Council of Europe Treaty on combating violence against women, saying that "We are of the opinion that the annulment of the İstanbul Convention does nor facilitate the fight against violence against women." (PT/VK)