The Turkish government has implemented an ambitious three-year project aimed at cutting public spending to combat inflation, which reached a peak of 70% on an annual basis in April. “Our priority is to combat the high cost of living. Inflation reduced to single digits is essential to ensure sustainable growth,” underlined Mehmet Simsek, Minister of Economy, during the presentation of the program in Ankara.
The plan includes a series of restrictive budget measures which will affect the entire public apparatus and which, for some of them, will require legislative adjustments to be brought forward in Parliament, added the minister. A three-year ban on the acquisition or leasing of new public service vehicles has been imposed, except for those needs considered essential in the health, safety and defense sectors.
The plan also announces further budget reductions to regulate expenditure, including a 10% decrease in budgets for the purchase of goods and services and a 15% decrease in investments, except for expenditure directed at areas affected by the February earthquake 2023. Furthermore, recruitment in the public sector will be limited to the number of retirements, and already in April the freezing of the minimum wage was announced, which previously used to be updated in July, unlike the last two years.