Turkey, which is facing a severe economic crisis, will launch a grand tour of investors, many of whom have fled in recent years, frightened by the hardening of power and economic instability.

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek announced today that he will hold a series of meetings, which will begin this week with the Group of Twenty (G20) countries, which will hold a summit in India, and will continue in Europe and then in New York. for the United Nations General Assembly.

At the same time, the World Bank announced its full support to the new team of the minister and the central bank, declaring “it is determined to accompany Turkey in the implementation of its policies” aimed at restoring the country’s economic stability.

“We’re going to the G20 tomorrow, right after that I’m going to Germany. We will then go to New York with our president for meetings at the UN. There will be meetings with investors. Then we will go to London and Asia,” said Mehmet Simsek addressing reporters.

“There won’t be an investor left that we don’t talk to,” promised the minister, who was appointed after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected in late May.

Foreign direct investment has fallen sharply in recent years in Turkey due to the collapse of its currency and rising inflation.

Turkish bonds, held by foreign investors, are now less than 1% of the total, down from about 20% in 2015, according to official statistics.

Inflation reached 58.9% year-on-year in August, after falling to 38.2% in June. In October 2022 it had reached 85.5%, its highest level.

According to the projections made public yesterday, Wednesday, the government is counting on inflation of 33% in 2024, then 15.2% in 2025 and finally 8.5% in 2026.

To bring down inflation, Turkey’s central bank gradually raised its key interest rate in early June from 8.5% to 25%.

President Erdogan has previously opposed interest rate hikes, arguing, contrary to classical economic theory, that high interest rates favor inflation.

The head of state yesterday, on Wednesday, advocated the continuation of “a restrictive monetary policy” and appeared to subscribe to the orthodoxy of his new panel of experts on interest rates and fully back his finance minister’s conventional choices on finance.

In these circumstances, the World Bank is going to increase its support to Turkey by 18 billion dollars, in addition to the 17 billion it has already granted, as its representative in Ankara, Umberto Lopez, estimates in his statement that the country is moving “in the right direction”.