Türkiye courts foreign capital
Ankara is actively pitching Türkiye as a stable regional base for international investment and Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek is meeting global finance chiefs in the U.S. to press the case. The government’s outreach is paired with commentary arguing reforms and incentives aim to attract firms reassessing where to place operations amid Middle Eastern instability, while reports note rising corporate bankruptcies and reserve pressure in 2025. (turkiyetoday.com) (dailysabah.com)
Türkiye is using this week’s International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington to pitch itself as a base for foreign investment. (worldbank.org) Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek began meetings in New York on April 13 before the Washington talks, with sessions planned with Citigroup Chief Executive Jane Fraser, JPMorgan executives, rating agencies and investor groups. (dailysabah.com) The World Bank says the 2026 Spring Meetings run from April 13 to April 18 in Washington, where finance ministers, central bankers and private-sector executives gather to discuss growth and financial stability. (worldbank.org) Ankara is making the case with a familiar list of assets: a large domestic market, a skilled workforce, a customs-union link with the European Union, and a legal regime that the United States says places few restrictions on foreign acquisitions. (state.gov) That sales pitch comes after a volatile 2025. The United States said the Turkish lira fell after the March 19, 2025 detention and arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and analysts reported the central bank used more than $50 billion in reserves in the following month to defend the currency. (state.gov) The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye then reversed course on April 17, 2025 and raised its policy rate from 42.5 percent to 46 percent. (tcmb.gov.tr) The International Monetary Fund said in its February 2026 review that inflation in Türkiye was 31 percent year over year in December 2025 and that growth was 4.0 percent in the first three quarters of 2025, but it also warned that inflation would likely stay above target and that foreign-exchange risks required vigilance. (imf.org) Foreign direct investment has improved, but from a modest base. The United States said Türkiye’s 2024 foreign direct investment inflows rose to $6.7 billion from $5.9 billion in 2023, and Invest in Türkiye said first-half 2025 inflows reached $6.3 billion, up 27.1 percent from a year earlier. (state.gov) (invest.gov.tr) The same period exposed stress inside the real economy. Türkiye Today, citing official judicial announcements, reported 247 bankruptcy rulings in 2025, up 87 percent from 2024, while concordatum filings rose 63 percent to 2,817. (turkiyetoday.com) The government’s argument is that tight policy, lower inflation and Türkiye’s location between Europe, Asia and the Middle East can outweigh those risks. Investors hearing Şimşek’s pitch this week are being asked to judge whether the stabilization program can hold long enough to turn that case into larger, steadier inflows. (imf.org) (dailysabah.com)
