Minister warns against relying on state banks

At the seventh International Finance Summit, State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan spoke of the danger of relying on state banks to relieve current economic problems. The event was organized by Active Academy. Speaking on developments in the Turkish banking sector, Babacan said: In the ‘90s state banks always had liquidity and capital deficits, while today they possess fewer non-performing loans than the sector average. This is testimony to the impressive development of the economic understanding in Turkey. In the opening speech of the summit, Babacan stressed the role that the structural strength of the Turkish financial system should play in keeping the Turkish economy stable during times of economic crisis. He noted that Turkey would recover from the crisis quickly compared to Europe but he stressed that the importance of the European economy in pulling Turkey out. He said, Europe is recovering at a slower pace compared to global trends. In the following year, we expect Europe to achieve near-zero growth. This is especially relevant for Turkey because Europe is an important export market. The faster Europe recovers, the faster our economy will recover. Babacan said that both external economic developments and internal crisis is responsible for Turkey’s problems.