Turkey enters rebalancing period: Finance minister

Hayati Akcay, Eyup Elevli

ORDU, Turkey (AA) - Preliminary indicators show Turkey has entered a strong rebalancing period, the country's finance and treasury minister said on late Thursday.

In the last 15 months, Turkey after facing three major currency attacks took measures to lift the economy, Berat Albayrak told a gathering of business people in the Black Sea province of Ordu.

These attacks tried to reduce the value of the Turkish lira against other major currencies (U.S. dollar, U.K. pound, Euro) so as to rise the inflation rate and collapse the Turkish economy, he added.

However, Turkey came out stronger from the attacks and took measures to prevent a similar situation in the future, he said.

The inflation rate which rose to 25% last year, has dropped 8.55% now, he recalled.

"It will drop to below 12%, which is our target, as of the end of this year, in 2020 we will see single digits."

He went on to say that Turkey posted the highest current account surplus in its history in August at $5.1 billion.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul