Turkey releases medium-term program for 2021-2023

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey on Thursday released its medium-term economic program, a new plan focused on sustainable and employment-based growth.

The program's main goal is developing the country's new economic targets, unveiled last week, and re-establishing domestic and international balance.

The new economic program targets GDP growth rate of 0.3% in 2020, 5.8% in 2021, and 5% in 2022 and 2023.

The new economic program also expects unemployment of 13.8% this year and 12.9% next year, and inflation of 10.5% this year, 8% in 2021, and 4.9% in 2023.

The program aims at economic transformation based on production, exports, and financial stability by using the economic opportunities created by the global economy’s new normal.

In the three-year period, fiscal discipline is the country’s essential fiscal policy.

The country targets using sources productively.

Turkey will implement temporal measures to reduce COVID-19’s effects on the economy to provide gradual recovery of the budget balance.

At the end of the program, the budget deficit is targeted to reach 3.5% of the country's GDP.

The program's GDP targets are 5.64 trillion Turkish liras ($771 billion) for 2021, 6.31 trillion Turkish liras ($795.5 billion) for 2022 and 7.02 trillion Turkish liras ($885 billion) for 2023.