Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week launched a fresh barrage of criticism and warnings at banks, charging that they are making unfairly large profits during a time of economic strain.<\/p>\n
Addressing the chamber of commerce and industry in the northern city of Trabzon, Erdogan said, \u201cBanks are not behaving themselves. We keep saying that interest rates must come down, but banks are using the citizens\u2019 deposits almost as a means of fleecing them,\u201d Al-Monitor reported.<\/p>\n
Pointing to a significant increase in bank profits, Erdogan said, \u201cLast year, after all the distress we went through, banks had a profit growth of 40%, which means there is a problem here. \u2026 Moreover, banks have almost doubled their profits this year. This is a disaster.\u201d In a thinly veiled call to discipline the sector, Erdogan said, \u201cI believe our central bank and public banks will take firms steps on this issue and pull this thing down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banking, interest rates and the profitability of banks have long been major targets for criticism in this country. Yet, Erdogan\u2019s Justice and Development Party, in power since 2002, owes much to Turkey\u2019s increased integration in western capitalism, through which it ensured economic growth and boosted its popular support.<\/p>\n
The AKP government, however, has failed to fully come to terms with the inevitable cost of this process\u2014the reality of interest rates\u2014and has instead continued to grumble about banks and an \u201cinterest rate lobby\u201d to its conservative base, often demonizing the sector. Erdogan\u2019s latest outburst is just another episode of the same old story.<\/p>\n
In the past two years, the AKP regime actively encouraged banks to turn on the lending taps as it scrambled to pull the economy from the brink of crisis. As a result, the business volume of banks expanded and their profits shot up. Now, Ankara is trying to obscure its role in this outcome by mounting a fresh attack on banks and interest rates.<\/p>\n
That the Turkish economy relies heavily on external funds to grow is a well-known fact. Banks are the intermediary in the provision of those funds. Drawing on the liquidity expansion spawned by the global financial crisis, Turkish banks have been borrowing from abroad and then using the money to end to consumers and companies at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week launched a fresh barrage of criticism and warnings at banks, charging that they are making unfairly large profits during a time of economic strain. Addressing the chamber of commerce and industry in the northern city of Trabzon, Erdogan said, \u201cBanks are not behaving themselves. We keep saying that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[297,285,271,192,497,496],"yoast_head":"\n