The details of the Medium-Term Program (MTP), which determines the three-year roadmap for the Turkish economy, were announced at the meeting held in BeÅŸtepe on September 6th. According to the program, inflation will be reduced to single digits by 2026, and the growth rate will reach 5% in 2026. The program also aims to increase per capita income to $14,855 in 2026, use blockchain technology in securities issuance and continue legislative work for transactions using digital Turkish lira and virtual assets.
Prominent Goals in the Medium-Term Program
The details of the three-year roadmap for the economy were announced at the meeting held in Beştepe on September 6th, attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, and Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek. With the program, the roadmap for the Turkish economy for the years 2024, 2025, and 2026 has been determined.
Yılmaz stated that the MTP has four main objectives, which are addressing the consequences of disasters, ensuring macroeconomic stability and single-digit inflation, maintaining growth and employment, and promoting social justice. He also said, “There will be three main policy tools in the MTP. These are ensuring fiscal discipline, except for earthquake expenditures, monetary policy, and structural transformations.”
According to the program, the growth rate will reach 5% in 2026, unemployment will be reduced to 9.3%, inflation will be lowered to 8.5%, the budget deficit will be reduced to 1.82 trillion Turkish liras, national income will reach $1.3 trillion, per capita income will be increased to $14,855, the current account deficit will be reduced to $30 billion, exports will be $302.2 billion, imports will be $414 billion, and tourism revenue will be increased to $71.3 billion.
Blockchain, Digital Turkish Lira, and Virtual Asset Plans in the Program
Under the sub-heading “Regulations for Priority Reform Areas in the MTP,” the program aims to take measures for the development of domestic technologies in the fintech sector in the first quarter of 2025 through laws, decisions, and administrative regulations. It also aims to issue securities through blockchain-based smart contracts and digitize export processes. Furthermore, the development of domestic technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, cybersecurity, and cyber-physical systems will be supported in the digital transformation of the industrial and service sectors.
The program also includes a notable target for the digital Turkish lira. Under the sub-heading “Price Stability and Financial Stability,” it aims to conduct studies for the widespread use of the digital Turkish lira based on the pilot findings of the Central Bank Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development Project in the fourth quarter of 2024. Moreover, measures will be taken to combat the informal economy by digitizing transactions using virtual assets, which can be bought, sold, and transferred digitally, through law regulations to be made in the fourth quarter of 2024.
