Erdogan’s Cheap-Credit Push Pays Off as Banks Turn on Taps
- Pace of lending surges to 60% as companies refinance debt
- State-owned banks extending credit faster than private peers
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Photographer: Akos Stiller/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Turkey’s push for cheap credit to mitigate the fallout from the coronavirus is bearing fruit, as companies and consumers take advantage of lower borrowing costs to refinance debt and shore up their finances.
Lending surged more than 60% in the 13 weeks through April 24 when annualized and adjusted for foreign-exchange fluctuations, after shrinking as much as 10% on the same basis during early 2019, according to central bank data. Commercial loans soared more than 80% and retail facilities by about 45%.