ANKARA: Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said that Turkey would have to fight against inflation to take it below of annual rate of 5 percent.
He added too much talk over the Central Bank’s monetary policy may cause concerns among investors. It is the Central Bank’s main duty to maintain price stability, so it must make decisions on a rational basis, he said. Making currency rate policies become a point of daily political polemics in a country has many negative effects, pushing the country’s risk premiums and rates up and making it less predictable, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan also said on Feb. 12, in a TV interview broadcast on state-run TRT.
The Central Bank scrapped the idea of holding an emergency rate meeting earlier this month amid rising pressure from political circles to cut rates.
Şimşek also said the fall of the Turkish Lira against the U.S. dollar was due to the strength of the U.S. currency globally. He added that the lira’s weakness was a risk for inflation.
The 28-country EU has pledged to crack down on tax rulings favouring big firms.The Commission, which polices state aid rules, launched an investigation on Feb. 3 to establish whether a Belgian tax provision allows some companies to substantially reduce their liabilities.
It opened probes last year into Apple in Ireland, Starbucks in the Netherlands and Amazon in Luxemburg.EU countries share little information about corporate tax rulings, making it difficult for tax authorities to work out where a company’s real business takes place and to apply the rules fairly.
