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Turkish government’s Medium Term Program: A frontal attack on the social conditions of the working class

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The Medium Term Program (MTP), which sets out the government’s economic targets and policies for the next three years, was approved by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and entered into force.

While the official annual inflation rate was 52 per cent in August, the program, which focuses on maintaining fiscal discipline to reduce inflation and close the budget deficit, shows that the attacks on the living and working conditions of the working class will continue and deepen. The program accelerates the policy of turning the country into a haven for cheap and precarious labour for national and international companies.

Cover of the Medium Term Programme (2025-2027) [Photo: Turkish Presidency Strategy and Budget Directorate]

In his presentation of the MTP, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz stated that Turkey’s economic strategies for the next three years are mainly focused on “sustainable growth” and “fiscal discipline”. Yılmaz stressed that the target of reducing inflation to single digits is a priority and that ensuring price stability is crucial in this process.

Yılmaz stated that the target is to reduce inflation to 41.5 percent in 2024, 17.5 percent in 2025, 9.7 percent in 2026 and 7 percent in 2027. The upward revision of the rates compared to the previous MTP (2024-2026) is evidence that the government’s targets have not been met and that the updated rates should be treated with scepticism.

Following Yılmaz’s presentation, Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that disinflation and price stability were priorities. Şimşek stated that fiscal and monetary policies will be implemented in a coordinated manner and public expenditure will be brought under control to strengthen fiscal discipline. Şimşek also reiterated that the aim is to reduce inflation to single digits.

The government wants to make the workers pay the price for achieving the objectives of the MTP, which is essentially the economic program of the bourgeoisie. Workers’ wages, whose purchasing power has been gradually reduced in recent years, are cited as the cause of high inflation. “The minimum wage increases to prevent the wage-price spiral will be in line with the disinflation process,” the MTP says. There is discussion in ruling circles that the minimum wage increase will be determined according to the target rate of inflation, not actual inflation, and that real wages will be further reduced.

In reality, the main source of inflation is not wage increases but corporate profits. This fact, which is also revealed by the data, was admitted by Erhan Çetinkaya, the head of TURKSTAT, who said the following: “Corporate profits are rising faster than inflation. The exorbitant corporate profits in Turkey have an upward effect on inflation, this has been scientifically proven”.

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