An election manifesto by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling party pledges to bring stubborn inflation down to single digits, boost growth and raise income, some of the vital economic promises that are seen as key as Türkiye heads to next month's pivotal vote.

The reelection campaign, officially launched on Tuesday, shed light on how Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) plan to shape everything from foreign policy to energy and other economic parameters following the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Inflation constitutes the most critical challenge, plaguing households and squeezing earnings and savings.

Erdoğan reiterated his party's commitment to tame inflation, stressing the goal to lower it to single digits from the current 50.5%. Nevertheless, the March reading marked a notable regress compared to the peak of 85.5% – a 24-year high – registered last October.

"We will bring inflation back down to single digits and save our country from this problem," he told a stadium crowd in Ankara.

The government has sought to safeguard households through various measures, significantly raising the minimum wage, lifting state salaries, offering debt relief and hiking pensions for millions.

Others included a cap on rent increases, reduced taxes on utility bills, unveiling a significant housing project for low-income families, and the arrangement that eliminates an age requirement and offers early retirement to millions of citizens in the first stage.

Larger income per capita

"We will increase the welfare level of our employees, from civil servants to retirees and workers, by always increasing their wages above inflation," Erdoğan said.

"We will raise the income per capita to $16,000 (TL 309,090), and then later to higher levels" from around $10,600, he noted.

His government's economic policies have been centered on a model that was unveiled in 2021 and that prioritizes low interest rates to boost exports, production and investment and creates new jobs. Dubbed the Türkiye Economy Model, the program aims to lower inflation by flipping the country's chronic current account deficit to a surplus.

Erdoğan on Tuesday reiterated that investment, production, exports and an eventual current account surplus would drive gross domestic product (GDP).

He said, "We will continue to grow our country with investment, employment, production, exports and a current-account surplus."

The ruling party's manifesto said the low-rate policy was the main driver of entrepreneurs investing in the real sector and creating jobs.

Last year, the country's central bank cut its benchmark one-week repo rate by 500 basis points to counter an economic slowdown and held it at 9% in December and January.

It trimmed it by another 50 basis points in February to boost industrial production and employment after devastating earthquakes struck the country's southeastern region. However, it left the key policy unchanged last month.

"Our priority in the upcoming period will be to restore our cities which were devastated," Erdoğan said, adding the government aims to build 650,000 apartments for survivors.

6M new jobs

Last week, the president said a team was strengthening economic policies under the coordination of former economic tsar Mehmet Şimşek, who international investors respect well.

"We will improve the investment further with a structure based on a free-market economy integrated with the world," the manifesto said, aiming for annual growth of 5.5% in 2024-2028 and gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.5 trillion by the end of end-2028.

"In the coming period, with an annual growth rate of 5.5%, we will increase our national income to $1.5 trillion and then to our main target of $2 trillion," Erdoğan said.

The president said the growth would enable Türkiye to create 6 million new jobs in five years, decreasing the unemployment rate to 7% from the current 10%.

"We will continue to attach special importance to the employment of women and youth," he added.

Erdoğan said they would focus on investment, production and exports "until we reach our goal of bringing our country to a foreign trade volume of $1 trillion."

According to the manifesto, the export target by 2028 stands at $400 billion, up from $254 billion last year.

Erdoğan also said Türkiye would speed up investment and promotion in tourism with a goal of 90 million tourists and $100 billion in revenue by 2028.

The has seen a complete rebound from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of foreign tourists neared a record and income hit an all-time high in 2022.

Foreign visitors hit 44.6 million in 2022, just shy of the peak of 45.1 million in 2019. Tourism revenues jumped to $46.3 billion last year, blowing past the previous high of $38.4 billion in 2019.

The government expects foreign arrivals to reach 60 million in 2023 before hitting 90 million in 2028. For the income, it sees it rising to $56 billion this year and $100 billion five years from now.