President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday that Turkey will grow approximately 7.5 percent in 2017, following a blistering 11.1 percent surge in GDP in the third quarter.
Speaking at an event in Ankara two days before a Central Bank meeting, Erdoğan also said he is against high interest rates and that inflation will not go down in a country where interest rates are high.
Turkish inflation hit its highest level in 14 years last month, surging by an annual 12.98 percent as transport and food costs spiked, official data showed.
"I am against high interest rates. I will continue to announce this," Erdoğan said in a speech in Ankara. "It is impossible for inflation to decrease in a country with high interest rates. Record this in your memory."
At its latest meeting in October the central bank said that it was keeping monetary policy tight until prospects of an easing of inflationary pressures become clear, after keeping all four of its policy rates on hold in line with market expectations.
For the fourth consecutive meeting, the bank left its late liquidity window, the highest of several instruments it uses to set policy, at 12.25 percent and its benchmark repo rate at 8 percent.
Turkey's economy has recovered from a downturn that followed an attempted coup last year, helped by a series of government stimulus measures, and expanded by 11.1 percent in the third quarter.
