Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) President Şekib Avdagiç made assessments on the business world’s agenda at the August assembly meeting. Stating that the effects of the radical change in economic policies following the June 2023 elections are becoming more apparent every day, Avdagiç drew attention to the difficulties in financing conditions, saying, “It would be a very appropriate decision to ease SMEs. Let’s not forget that the investment ecosystem in the country is built on SMEs. As the SME-based ecosystem is improved, it becomes possible to attract large-scale investments. Our most important expectation is that financial tightening does not harm financial resilience. Therefore, we should not neglect the gradual improvement of financing conditions at reasonable scales.”
The agenda of İTO President Avdagiç also included exchange rates and the course of inflation. Avdagiç said, “The real appreciation of the Turkish Lira plays an important role in curbing exchange rate-related cost inflation. However, the disconnection of exchange rate increases from inflation poses a significant problem for our exports. The fact that the gap between exchange rate increases and inflation is approaching 50 points against the exchange rate on an annual basis is an alarming situation.
Avdagiç stated that the contraction and market loss experienced especially in traditional product groups such as textile, ready-to-wear, and apparel have reached significant levels, and therefore they expect a balanced correlation to be established between the exchange rate and inflation.
