Erdogan reiterates discontent with Turkish interest rate policy

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his discontent with the country's interest rate policy on Tuesday, saying it was a means of exploitation and calling on the country's banks to “be reasonable.”

“I am not happy with our country's interest rate policy. My country cannot develop with this rate policy, this is a means of exploitation,” he said at an economic summit in Ankara.

“If you try to double the interest rate set by the central bank to give credit, you can't get anywhere with 15, 16, 17 percent. We can't achieve anything if loans are provided at double-digit interest rates,” he said.

“I'm calling on the bosses of the financial sector, namely state banks, to be reasonable.”