Erdem Başçi: Recent economic and financial developments in Turkey Speech by Mr Erdem Başçi, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the press conference for the presentation of the January 2013 Inflation Report, Ankara, 29 January 2013. *  *  *  Distinguished Guests, Welcome to the press conference held to convey the main messages of the first Inflation Report of the year. Today I will talk about recent global and domestic developments besides the CBRT’s inflation forecasts that are accordingly updated. I will now present an overview of the report, which will be published on our web-site shortly. The Report typically summarizes the economic outlook underlying monetary policy decisions, shares our evaluations on macroeconomic developments and presents our medium-term inflation forecasts which were revised in view of the developments in the last quarter, along with our monetary policy stance. In addition to the main text, the Report includes nine boxes entailing significant and up-to-date analyses on various topics. For instance, one of these boxes presents an analysis on the level of credit growth rate which will prove reasonable and healthy for Turkey in the period ahead. Moreover, there is a summary of two papers examining the effects of the CBRT’s latest policies on the expectations and volatility of the foreign exchange rate. In the Report, there are also analyses on the current account balance, global risks, accounting of inflation forecasts, tax adjustments on the tobacco products and the sensitivity of tax revenues on the economic circumstances.
Thanks to this cooperation, our staff capacities were enhanced as regards the handling of responsibilities arising from the implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, approximation to the ESCB standards, and the challenges that we may encounter when Albania receives the status of a candidate country and starts negotiations of EU accession. Last but not least, financial literacy is of key importance to the Bank of Albania. Thanks to support from and cooperation with the project team, an action plan was designed to promote financial literacy and enhance awareness of market-economy principles across various groups of the society. Also, a system for monitoring financial literacy in schools was set up. Further on, due to complexity of our work and new developments in the banking and financial area, it is clear that the project has strengthened our institution and has helped us cope with new situations. Moreover, the cooperation and communication between our institutions intensified from both viewpoints, professionally and personally. We do live in a global society, where financial developments take place at a rapid pace. Therefore, central banks should possess strong and reliable mechanisms of coordination and communication, which may prepare our institutions to cope with such situations.