'Turkish banking sector supports SMEs with $3.7B'

Some 13 Turkish lenders have launched a 20-billion-lira ($3.7-billion) finance package for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), the treasury and finance minister announced on Thursday.

SMEs, which have an annual turnover of less than 25 million liras ($4.6 million), may benefit from the 6-month-non-refundable loan package with a 1.54-percent monthly interest rate, Berat Albayrak said.

"Firms in the manufacturing and export sectors will receive 1 million Turkish liras ($183,740), and in other sectors will receive 500,000 Turkish liras ($91,885)," he noted in a press meeting at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.

The SME credit package was created by lenders' and it will not affect the country's treasury, Albayrak underlined.

The lenders are state-run Halk, Vakıf, Vakıf Katılım (participation) Ziraat, and Ziraat Katılım (participation), and private Alternatif, Albaraka (participation), Deniz, Garanti, Şeker, TEB, QNB Finans, and Yapı Kredi.

The minister also said around 20,000/40,000 SMEs will be benefited from this package.

Touching on the country's 2018 targets, he highlighted that Turkey reached all targets with recovery in inflation, foreign currency, interest, and CDS premiums.

"The period in the last 3-4 months and its outputs shows the rebalancing process is continuing step-by-step," he added.