The Minister of Treasury and Finance, Mehmet Şimşek, announced that they anticipate this year’s current account deficit to be lower than the target set out in the OVP (Medium-Term Program). Minister Şimşek evaluated the February current account balance statistics. In a social media post, he stated: “In February, the annual current account deficit was 12.8 billion dollars, while the net current surplus excluding gold reached 1.8 billion dollars. With the impact of decreasing energy prices, we foresee that this year’s current account deficit will be lower than our OVP target. We will continue to utilize our resources to enhance our country’s welfare by keeping the current account deficit at sustainable levels and reducing the need for external financing. We are also committed to ongoing efforts to ensure that the effects of increasing protectionist trends in global trade remain limited in our country, and to make the most of potential opportunities. In this challenging period, we believe that our effective trade diplomacy and the dynamism of our exporters will help our country positively differentiate itself.”