Mehmet Şimşek

Turkey aims to hit annual economic growth of 5.5 percent until 2020 in its medium-term economic program, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on Sept. 25.        

Yıldırım also said the government forecasts the unemployment rate to be 10.8 percent for this year, 10.5 percent in 2018, 9.9 percent in 2019 and 9.6 percent in 2020.        

The Turkish Treasury will issue two types of bonds to attract 2,200 tons of gold stashed under mattresses into the economy, which has a market value of around 300 billion Turkish Liras, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said. 

The Turkish economy expanded 5.1 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of the year, official data showed on Sept. 11, showing a strong recovery in investments and exports, helped by the government's fiscal stimulus measures after growth was hit last year by an attempted coup.

Members of Turkey's top business organization have reiterated their demand to maintain Turkey's European Union membership perspective in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek on Sept. 7, while also voicing their concerns about high inflation and financing costs. 

Germany has no right to block a planned update of Turkey's Customs Union with the European Union, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Sept. 7, touching on a simmering row between Ankara and Berlin.

Turkey cannot be expelled from the Customs Union even if Germany sought it, Turkey's deputy prime for the economy said late on Sept. 5.      

Speaking on the state-run channel TRT Haber, Mehmet Şimşek stated that he believes many countries in the EU will act with common sense.      

Turkey is set to remove obstacles before companies that cannot trade on Borsa Istanbul due to their inability to generate period profits because of their investment financing expenses, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has welcomed a drop to single digits in Turkey's inflation rate, predicting a sharper fall to below 7 percent next year. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has welcomed a drop to single digits in Turkey's inflation rate, predicting a sharper fall to below 7 percent next year. 

Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek has said the worst is over for the Turkish economy, adding that it was time to leap ahead for the economy. 

In an interview with daily Milliyet on July 31, Şimşek said Turkey lured nearly $5 billion foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first five months of the year.