Erdogan Denies Capital Controls in Curbing Wealth Smuggling
- Turkish leader says smuggling efforts tantamount to treason
- Foreign direct investment outflows set for slowest since 2010
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Photographer: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
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Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday ruled out capital controls as he clarified his demand for measures to prevent the smuggling of wealth abroad by unnamed businessmen he branded as traitors.
“I gave no demand or instruction to restrict the movement of capital,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in Ankara, a day after he urged the government to prevent the illegal transfer of wealth overseas. “Turkey has a free-market economy, anyone has had the right to take their money abroad since 1989,” he said. “There is no doubt this will continue.”