Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the election campaign for the ruling Justice and Development Party on Tuesday, promising to reduce inflation to a single-digit figure and support economic growth as he seeks to extend his more than twenty-year rule in the May 14 elections. Erdogan stated before a crowd at a stadium in Ankara: "We will continue to grow our economy through investment, employment, production, exports, and a current surplus. We will reduce inflation to a single digit and certainly rescue our country from this problem."
He added: "Our priority in the upcoming period will be to rebuild our destroyed cities," noting that the government aims to construct 650,000 housing units for survivors. He further remarked: "We can negotiate with both sides in the Russian-Ukrainian war and achieve tangible progress like the grain export corridor and prisoner exchanges. We can still talk about the possibility of peace."
Erdogan's policy of sharply lowering interest rates has led to inflation reaching a 24-year high, exceeding 85% in October, before dropping to around 50% in March. Erdogan is facing opposition alliance candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the presidential elections next month.
