628 thousand merchants closed their doors in 3.5 years

While the rising cost of living and wages below the hunger threshold for workers and retirees continue to reduce the purchasing power of citizens, merchants who are forced to close their workplaces without making a profit are having a hard time.

Traders who cannot buy the product they sell at the same price the next day and whose input costs, from electricity to rent, have increased by more than 100 percent, find the solution of closing their workplace to leave. of the debt quagmire.

THE RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION WAS RECEIVED AFTER 3 MONTHS

CHP Manisa MP Bekir Başevirgen, who wanted to reveal the difficulties experienced by traders, asked a parliamentary question to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on August 28, which was answered by the Ministry of Commerce, regarding the number of closed traders since Covid-19. epidemic in 2020.

Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, who answered CHP’s Başevirgen parliamentary question about three months later, revealed with the data that he shared the deep impact of the economic crisis on traders.

628 THOUSAND 864 MERCHANTS CLOSED THE BLINDS

In the answer to the parliamentary question it was revealed that the number of merchants who closed their businesses due to the economic crisis had reached serious levels, so it is feared that this number will increase at the end of the year.

In the numerical data shared by years, 209,630 merchants closed their shutters during the closure period caused by the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020, while 204,905 merchants closed their shutters in 2021, when controlled normalization measures were taken. . While 125,598 merchants closed their businesses in 2022, when normal life began, 88,731 merchants had to close their businesses until August 2023.

It was revealed that a total of 628,864 merchants, who could not resist the economic crisis, closed their businesses in the last 3.5 years.

‘THE NUMBERS ARE WORRYING’

Evaluating the data shared by the Ministry of Commerce on closed merchants, CHP Manisa MP Bekir Başevirgen stated that the announced figures are alarming.

In his statement, CHP’s Başevirgen stated that traders have been crushed by the economic crisis in the past three and a half years and made the following statements:

“We have been saying for years that the high price of the pandemic has fallen on merchants. The data shared by the Minister also confirms this. Merchants who opened and closed during the pandemic period were unable to receive subsidies due to their loss of income and were left dependent on bank loans, unable to recover. While symbolic aid of between 3,000 and 5,000 lira was granted to traders during the pandemic period, bank loans were also granted as a solution to financing problems.

However, while merchants faced rising input costs and high bill increases after the pandemic, they continued to be crushed by past debt. The merchants, who the next day had to buy the product they were selling at a higher price, had to sell their livelihood. High inflation, exorbitant increases in the prices of inputs, electricity, natural gas and rents forced hundreds of thousands of merchants to close their shutters. SMEs, which have not yet managed to recover, owe more than 3 trillion lire to the banks until September. The number of SMEs whose debts are being monitored reached 303,500.”

‘THIS SITUATION IS A SOCIOLOGICAL DISASTER’

CHP’s Başevirgen pointed out that the purchasing power of the middle class is very important for commerce to return and the economy to achieve certain prosperity and stated that the number of closed merchants exceeding 600 thousand in 3.5 years is a sociological disaster.

CHP’s Başevirgen concluded his statement with the following statements:

“During the AKP period, the rich became richer and the poor became poorer. There is no class left in the middle class. The crisis that we have experienced in the last 3 years has collapsed the country’s middle class. The middle class and its loyalists began to collapse. While high inflation pushed the middle class toward the bottom, the rich segment at the top became even richer. However, the return of commerce and the ability of merchants to find customers depends on the middle class maintaining its purchasing power.

This disappearance of small merchants represents an enormous loss in terms of microeconomics. When the incomes of the middle class, who were among the customers of most merchants, decreased, the merchants who provided them with goods and services also got into trouble. Small merchants will soon cease to exist. “This situation is actually a sociological disaster.”