Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz addressed the General Assembly of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on the last day of the 2025 budget negotiations, saying: “Our reserves, which were at $98.5 billion in May last year, have reached a record level of around $165 billion as of December 13, 2024.”
Yılmaz pointed out that the discussions on the 2025 Budget Law proposal, which were conducted intensively and meticulously for 12 days in the General Assembly after it was submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on October 17, have ended, and Yılmaz thanked all those who worked hard and contributed to this process.
Pointing out that today as the Justice and Development Party they presented the 23rd Budget, the 7th Budget of the Presidential Government System and the 2nd Budget of the Turkish Century, Yılmaz said: “There were many evaluations and criticisms here. We respect all of them. Although we disagree with some issues in terms of style and disagree with some in terms of ideas, we left behind a very valuable negotiation process that took place today, and in this process it is possible to answer all questions one by one in a limited time. I would like to say something collectively: Our friends in the opposition have expressed many serious, comprehensive and detailed issues about the government, criticized and tried. To show that this government was a failed government and to convince the public of this. Friends, a failed government cannot present 23 budgets in a row. The final decision of success and failure is the nation itself, and it does so at the ballot boxes in a democratic environment, and we fully respect it.” Our nation’s evaluations of our government have been tested many times. “As a government that has presented its policies to our people, we thank our beloved nation time and again for giving us the opportunity to present the budget for such a long period.”
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Stating that there are many qualifications regarding the budget and that they found some of them unfair and very inappropriate, Yılmaz continued his speech as follows:
“In our opinion and from our point of view, our budget is a budget of stability, work and development. It is a budget for 85 million people, our 81 provinces, and all social groups. It is the second budget of the Turkish century that heals the wounds of the earthquake and prepares our country for the future on a much stronger basis. It is a budget of sound policies that aim for growth and permanent increase in social welfare with increased added value, from education to health. It is a budget that aims to strengthen human capital, which is the basic element of development. It is a budget of Turkey that aims to complete the shortcomings in our country’s physical infrastructure. It is more than the budget of a country. It is the budget of our strong, peaceful and secure state in its region and on a global level. It is the budget of our beloved nation and our noble state. “The hope of the oppressed is the budget that our country’s experienced and astute leader, the man of the nation, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, presented to the appreciation of our veteran Parliament.”
Referring to the fact that there was a rapid exit from the exchange rate-protected deposits that were introduced as a practice Temporarily, Yilmaz said: “We have achieved this without disturbing the financial markets or having a negative impact. Look, the exchange rate-protected deposits increased to 3 trillion 408 billion liras as of August 13 last year, and decreased to 1 trillion 170 billion liras as of December 2024. If you look at it in dollar terms, it is seriously approaching $30 billion. “There is a decline and therefore a decrease in exchange rate risk.”
