Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday unveiled a long-promised economic reform package to boost the confidence of foreign investors and temper inflation while boosting trade.
It included tax breaks for small business owners and a pledge to improve efficiency that could help export-driven growth.
Erdogan identified the fight against persistent inflation as “one of the main objectives” with the goal of quickly “bringing it down to single digits”.
Erdogan has been promising to unveil a major reform package since overhauling his economic team in November.
That shakeup included installing market-friendly economist Naci Agbal as the new central bank chief and accepting Berat Albayrak’s resignation as finance minister.
The central bank burned through most of its reserves in the meantime while trying to support the lira.
Agbal’s hike of the main interest rate to 17% in the past four months has helped stabilise the currency.
Erdogan’s pledges on Friday included an income tax break for 850,000 small businesses and improved transparency in public tenders. He also vowed to replace imports with domestic products to help local producers and to limit the spending of Turkey’s sprawling government administration.
Other pledges included a plan to help banks deal with bad loans and improve their asset quality.
Erdogan set no deadlines for his proposals.
The government’s ultimate goal is to bring the annual inflation rate down to 5% by 2023.