The biggest recipe for pain is loss of well-being.

Half After the announcement of the Forward Program, the investment appetite of the business world, which is waiting for the concrete steps of the program to be taken, is hampered by the financing problem and the current uncertainty. Süleyman Sönmez, chairman of the board of directors of the Turkish Confederation of Enterprises and Businesses (TÜRKONFED) said: “Loss of well-being is our biggest recipe for pain. There may be a difference between your reflection on the ceiling and your reflection on the floor, but we’ll all get our share. We must first stop the scourge of inflation. “This is what we call a bitter recipe,” he said.

PURCHASING POWER MUST INCREASE

Sönmez affirmed that if the current trend and policies are not altered, a positive process has begun and in his evaluations of the evolution of the economy he stated that this transformation process is paid for by all segments of society, but with a bitter prescription. . Sönmez stated that inflation, which affects everyone, “hurts” more in Turkey and that high energy costs and loans with high interest rates are a painful recipe for the business world: “It is necessary to increase power purchasing. We can increase this not with increases but with added value. There is growth that impoverishes. It seems that we will see single-digit inflation in 2026. These are the steps the country will take to see single-digit inflation figures.
important. “The support that will be given to the PMP through structural reforms is important,” he said.

Predictability not only in words but also in actions

Süleyman Sönmez stated that the most important problem for the business world is predictability: “The business world wants predictability not only in speech but also in action. For this reason, we also want science and economics to return to market norms, which are a requirement of economics. The industrialist must be able to see the future of the investor. There is no investment frenzy in Türkiye. There is appetite, but there is no environment with these maturities and these interest rates. The need for business loans increased by 200 percent between last year and this year. If you ask me if there are companies that invest, I can list a thousand that want to do it, but I can’t name any that do. “So there’s that excitement, but that predictability hasn’t been fully established yet,” he said.

The maturity of the loan must be 5 years.

Noting that, especially after the pandemic, there has been a huge decrease in loan maturities, Süleyman Sönmez noted that the need for financing is critical and continued: “Market maturities have also shortened. The market maturity, which was 5-6 months, has now decreased to 2-3 months. SMEs have serious financial needs. As an investor, I say that 5 years is the medium term. I think it might be beneficial to make this accessible. However, today there is no chance of it being profitable.”