2.9 Communication Activities

2.9.1 Accountability and Monetary Policy Communication

The CBRT works diligently to guarantee an effective communication strategy to improve the effectiveness of its monetary policy and adhere to the principle of accountability associated with the Bank’s instrument independence.

Keeping the public informed about monetary policy actions along with the rationale thereof facilitates a better understanding of the policies and is also conducive to a more credible monetary policy and better anchored expectations.

For the CBRT, accountability means being accountable to the public for its decisions, their consequences and its corporate governance. While working to fulfill the duties assigned by Law No. 1211, the CBRT also makes efforts to provide open and clear communication to fulfill its responsibility towards the society.

Rules governing the CBRT accountability are stated clearly in Article 42 of the CBRT Law. As required by the principle of accountability, the CBRT continued to publish its analytical balance sheet on its website on a daily basis. The Bank issued a report to share its independently audited balance sheet and income-expense statements along with the results of the audits. Similarly, the rationale for CBRT policy decisions and the consequences of such decisions were also publicly announced through regular reports and presentations. In addition, Governor Naci Ağbal made a presentation before the Commission on Plan and Budget at the GNAT on 25 December 2020. This presentation and its main messages were shared with members of the press in line with the transparency principle. Following the presentation, Governor Ağbal answered the questions of the Committee members.

Under the current monetary policy regime, the CBRT’s main communication documents are MPC announcements and Inflation Reports. Inflation Reports follow a pre announced calendar and contain information about international economic developments, the course of inflation and supply and demand as well as overall assessments concerning financial markets, financial intermediation and public finance along with medium term inflation forecasts. These reports also included text boxes dealing with current issues concerning the Turkish economy. Inflation Reports of 2020 were presented at press conferences, in which press members, economists and analysts from Turkey and abroad participated, on 30 January and 29 July in Ankara and on 28 October in Istanbul. In line with the protective measures taken due to the coronavirus pandemic, the press conference on the Inflation Report was held virtually on 30 April 2020. All press conferences were broadcast live on the website and social media accounts of the CBRT.

The CBRT publicly announces the monetary and exchange rate policy that it will pursue in the following year via the Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy document it releases every year in December. The Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy for 2021 was announced on 16 December 2020 via a virtual press conference. At the conference, the CBRT underlined the importance of price stability for sustainable growth, and emphasized that it would decisively implement a full-fledged inflation targeting regime and monetary policy decisions would be taken by giving priority to price stability.

MPC meetings were held on the scheduled dates³ specified in the Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy for 2020 document, and the CBRT continued to post on its website the decisions and the summaries of MPC meetings. Information about the CBRT’s major activities and about changes in implementation that were of significant concern to the public were disclosed by means of 77 press releases in 2020.

Through the Financial Stability Reports, the CBRT shared with the public its perspective on the financial system in light of the recent developments in Turkey and abroad.

To promote better public understanding of monthly inflation developments, the CBRT continued to issue a report on Monthly Price Developments on the first business day following the release of inflation figures.

³ The Monetary Policy Committee Meeting, which was scheduled for 19 March 2020, was held on 17 March to discuss the potential economic and financial impacts of the coronavirus.

2.9.2 Communication Activities for the General Public

The Bank’s website, its main communication channel, remained in use to meet current technological trends and user demands.

The CBRT continued to use the social media actively and to enrich the posts with visual content in line with its Social Media Strategy. The CBRT’s Twitter account, in particular, was used intensively. As a result, the number of followers of the Turkish Twitter account reached 332,000.

Through its YouTube channel, the CBRT also published the Governor’s speeches, Inflation Reports, Financial Stability Reports, the Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy for 2021 document as well as informative videos prepared for various events organized by the CBRT and other videos prepared for the CBRT’s Economics for All initiative. On its Flickr account, the CBRT continued to share photographs from events and activities organized by the Bank.

Having been online since December 2016 to help CBRT professionals share their views with the public, open these views to discussion, and provide timely contributions to the economic agenda, the CBRT’s corporate blog continued to feature new analyses. Throughout the year, six new analyses were published on the blog. The CBRT Blog is located at www.tcmbblog.org and can be followed on Twitter @TCMBBlog.

In the scope of communication with stakeholders in 2020, the CBRT Governor gave presentations, speeches and interviews in Turkey on CBRT policies and implementations as well as current economic developments.

In 2020, the CBRT’s corporate identity, which sets the design features of its communication tools and channels, was revised and a new design concept was developed. Accordingly, the visual design of the CBRT logo as well as its communication tools and channels was renewed.

The CBRT responded to requests for information sent through the Right to Information Unit (BES) established under the Right to Information Act, the Presidential Communication Center (CIMER), the Right to Information Unit (BES) of the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and the Bank’s e mail address iletisimbilgi@CBRT.gov.tr, which is used for communicating with individuals and institutions outside the Bank. Applications processed duly through the BES totaled 2,476 (1,113 through e government), 1,402 through CİMER, and 10,302 through the “iletisimbilgi” address.

In the scope of the activities for communication with the general public, a short video was posted on the Economics for All platform to introduce the Financial Accounts report published quarterly by the Data Governance and Statistics Department. The video presented the content, data sources and use of Financial Accounts.

The CBRT expanded the data coverage of company accounts statistics, which used to be collected from a specified sample in the previous years, to include the whole real sector for the first time in 2020. In cooperation with the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT), the CBRT published balance sheets, income statements, credit information, and important financial statement rates aggregated by sector and scale and covering the years from 2009 to 2019.

2.9.3 Activities on Financial Education and Economy Education

The CBRT continues to pursue the Economics for All initiative it started to raise awareness about the importance of price stability and to teach economics to various types of learners. This initiative features publications, events and similar communication activities for various target groups and aims to enable all target groups to have access to different levels of tools and content published on its own microsite about the importance of price stability, the role of a central bank in the economy, and current economic issues.

One of the key parts of this initiative is the Economics for All microsite, which is a pioneer of its kind in Turkey. Content in various forms such as videos, booklets, infographics and tests on the CBRT’s core functions and basic principles of economics continued to be published on this microsite, further enriched with seven new videos.

Course plans, infographics, videos, classroom activities and similar educational materials related to the Economics for All program that may benefit pre school, primary school, secondary school and high school teachers are published on the CBRT’s website, the Economics for All microsite, and the educational informatics network of the Ministry of Education (http://www.eba.gov.tr/eicerik/tcmb).

Established as part of the Economics for All initiative to reach out to different segments of the public all around Turkey, the Economics for All in Anatolia project continued with many events and activities targeting students of primary, secondary and higher level educational establishments as well as teachers in various provinces. Under the project, events were organized on 25-27 February 2020 in Trabzon, and on 11-12 March 2020 in Sivas. As part of the outreach event series, primary, secondary and high school teachers participated in Teacher Gatherings. They were informed about the Economics for All initiative, the CBRT and monetary policy as well as related educational materials that can be used in the classroom. In school visits, informative presentations were made to the students in grades four, seven and eleven. In these visits, students were informed about the concepts of money, its functions, inflation, price stability and central banking using age appropriate presentations, videos, games and contests. Additionally, the CBRT organized University Gatherings for students of Karadeniz Technical University and Sivas Cumhuriyet University in these provinces. These events involved presentations about central banking and price stability. University students showed great interest in these events, which also involved various contests. With all these activities and events, the CBRT reached out to approximately 1,600 participants consisting of students and teachers. University Gatherings held at the CBRT Head Office for almost 15 consecutive years could not take place in 2020 due to the pandemic. For the same reason, the Economics for All in Anatolia activities were also suspended as of March.

2.9.4 Investor Relations

The CBRT organized technical meetings and teleconferences with investor agencies and credit rating agencies (CRAs) in the January-March 2020 period. In five in-person meetings, the Bank met with a total of 21 people representing 14 agencies. On the other hand, in-person meetings could not be held after March due to travel restrictions and isolation measures related to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, two video conferences were held with domestic and foreign investors, economists, analysts, and portfolio managers in July and September. These video conferences were the first examples of digital and comprehensive investor conferences in the history of the CBRT.

The CBRT met with 165 people from a total of 100 investor agencies in the video conference of 9 July 2020, and with 185 people from a total of 110 agencies on 3 September 2020.

In addition, one in-person meeting and seven video conferences were held with CRAs during the year.

Moreover, in the scope of the memorandum of understanding signed between the CBRT and Bank Indonesia in 2015, a video seminar was organized in November for the investor relations officials of the two institutions to bolster bilateral relations and exchange information and experience. In the seminar, presentations were made on the organization structures, business processes, and activities of the investor relations units at the two institutions, and views were exchanged.

Meanwhile, perception and analytical studies to measure the perceptions of stakeholders continued during the year.