346 thousand more people became millionaires in 8 months

■ Tolga UĞUR

High While fixed incomes are getting poorer day by day in an inflationary environment, the rich segment of the country continues to increase its wealth with the economic policies implemented. Statistical data also reveal that inequality in income distribution has deepened with the low interest policy implemented by the government before the elections. According to August data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board (BDDK), the number of depositors with deposits equal to or greater than 1 million lira reached 1 million 106 thousand 977. This number was 760 thousand 982 people at the end of December 2022.

THEY RECEIVE 1 PERCENT PARTICIPATION

While the damage caused to the economy by the low-interest policy implemented before the presidential elections grew, 345,995 more people were added to the ‘millionaires’ in the first eight months of the year. While the number of millionaires increased, the amount in their accounts increased by 54 percent, from 5.7 trillion lira to 8.8 trillion lira. In August 2023, the total volume of deposits of domestic residents was 11 trillion 990.8 billion lira. Although ‘millionaires’ represent only 0.68 percent of the more than 160 million depositors, they own 73.5 percent of the system’s total money. However, 92.5 percent of the total number of domestic resident depositors in banks have deposits of up to 10,000 TL in their accounts. This segment, which constitutes the majority, has only 1.02 percent of the total deposit volume of 11.9 trillion lira.

9 out of 10 accounts do not even have a minimum wage

While the money in the banking system of 148.4 million of the 160.4 million national residents in Turkey failed to reach 5-digit values, the total size of their deposits was recorded at only 123.1 billion lira. That is, 9 out of 10 accounts in the banking system are even below the minimum net salary of 11,402 liras.

They became millionaires with foreign currency and gold

According to BRSA, until August the size of foreign currency deposits and precious metal accounts of domestic residents decreased by 6.6 percent compared to the beginning of the year, reaching 179 thousand 759 million dollars, due to the transition to KKM. 69.71 percent of that amount, 125.23 billion dollars, belongs to ‘millionaire’ depositors. In accounts with a deposit of up to 10,000 Turkish liras there are only savings in foreign currency and gold worth 656 million dollars. This is only 0.36 percent of the total foreign currency and gold accounts.