Thousands of people protested in the Turkish capital Ankara on Monday demanding a bigger increase in the minimum wage, chanting slogans calling for the government to resign and waving opposition and national flags, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The government announced this week that the net minimum monthly wage in 2025 will be 22,104 Turkish liras ($630.28), 30 percent more than in 2024. The government said the level was set to maintain fiscal discipline and continue the fight against inflation.
Turkish workers, who face an ongoing cost-of-living crisis with inflation expected to hit 45 percent this year, have called for a total increase of about 70 percent.
Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), called today's protest, saying the minimum wage hike showed Erdogan's government had "lost touch with the reality in Turkey."
"They say inflation will increase as much as the minimum wage increases. This is a big lie. There was no increase in the minimum wage this year, and we have 50 percent inflation," CHP leader Özgür Özel told the rally.
In 2022 and 2023 there were additional increases in the minimum wage in the middle of the year due to high inflation, the agency reminds.
"When hundreds of thousands of people are calling for your resignation, Mr. Erdogan, you cannot avoid elections. If there is no bread and butter, then there will be elections", Özel also said.
Presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey are scheduled for 2028.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that there would be more interest rate cuts in 2025 after the central bank cut its key interest rate by 250 basis points to 47.5 percent this week, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
The Turkish central bank cut interest rates after 18 months of tightening efforts that reversed the course of the unconventional economic policy advocated by Erdogan, who later changed his position and supported the program.
"The priority in our economic program is to reduce inflation... We hope to reduce inflation to the necessary level by using other tools at our disposal, in addition to monetary policy," Erdogan told members of his Justice and Development Party in northwestern city of Bursa.
"We will definitely start lowering interest rates. 2025 will be a landmark year for that," he added.
"Interest rates will decrease, so inflation will also decrease. This is now mandatory for us," the head of state stressed.
Erdogan, who previously described interest rates as "his biggest enemy," said last month that inflation would fall along with interest rates.
The central bank announced earlier that it had reduced the number of scheduled meetings of its monetary policy committee in 2025 to eight from 12 in 2024.