2.10 Communication

2.10.1 Accountability and Monetary Policy Communication

In 2023, in line with the principles of accountability and transparency, the CBRT aimed to reinforce public confidence in its policies and enhance their effectiveness and accordingly, continued to convey messages regarding the predictability of its monetary policy stance through strengthened communication with all its stakeholders.

As entailed by the principle of accountability, the CBRT sent an Open Letter to the Government on 31 January 2023 pursuant to Article 42 of the CBRT Law, clearly explaining to the public the reasons for the failure to achieve the inflation target in the previous year.

Again as part of the accountability principle, Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan made a presentation at the meeting of the Plan and Budget Committee of the GNAT on 3 October 2023, and then answered questions from the Committee members. Governor Erkan’s main messages from this meeting were instantly shared with the public via the CBRT’s social media accounts.

In the scope of the transparency principle, the CBRT published its analytical balance sheet on its website on a daily basis, and issued a report to share its independently audited balance sheet and income-expense statements along with the results of the audits in 2023 as in previous years.

In 2023, the CBRT continued to post the decisions and the summaries of MPC meetings on its website. In addition, the CBRT also shared its major activities and changes in implementation that were of significant concern to the public by means of press releases throughout the year. Accordingly, the CBRT published 56 press releases on its website in 2023, which were also made accessible to a wider audience through the corporate social media accounts.

The CBRT closely monitored developments regarding financial stability, and shared with the public the summary of these developments through the Financial Stability Reports published regularly in May and November. Moreover, in line with the multilayered communication activities, the main messages from the reports were also shared on social media in short videos to reach out to a wider audience.

The Monthly Price Developments report, which is issued every month on the first working day following the release of inflation figures to promote better public understanding of monthly inflation developments and the disinflation path, continued to be a significant communication tool of the CBRT in 2023.

MPC announcements and Inflation Reports remained the CBRT’s main communication documents regarding the monetary policy in effect. Through the Inflation Reports, the CBRT shared its overall assessments concerning international economic developments, inflation, supply and demand developments, financial markets, financial intermediation and public finance as well as its medium-term inflation and output gap forecasts. Again, as part of its multilayered communication activities, main messages from the Inflation Reports were also emphasized through social media posts with a view to facilitating the access to information by press members and the public.

Inflation Report briefings were held on 26 January, 4 May, 27 July and 2 November in Ankara. Press members and economists wishing to attend the meeting were welcome, and their questions were answered by Governor Erkan. These briefings were broadcast live on TV channels and the CBRT’s social media accounts.

2.10.2 Communication Activities for the General Public

Real sector representatives, press members, and the general public remained as the important target audiences of CBRT communications in 2023. To reach out to these audiences through a two-way communication using plain language, the CBRT actively used digital communication tools throughout the year.

For the CBRT, which uses its website intensely as the main communication channel, social media also plays an essential role in reaching out to a wider audience. In this respect, the CBRT continued its communication activities in 2023 through all its social media accounts, chiefly X (Twitter). In 2023, the number of followers of the CBRT’s X (Twitter) account in Turkish, where information about the decisions taken and data released were enriched with visual content, exceeded 590,000. Throughout the year, all reports, statistics and visuals as components of the monetary policy communication were structured according to the characteristics of the target audience and shared with the public in a timely and transparent manner on the suitable social media platform.

As part of the active and two-way communication with stakeholders, Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan first met with the Board of Directors of the Banks Association of Türkiye (BAT) on 23 June 2023. In the following months, Governor Erkan held meetings with the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) on 29 November 2023 and the Ankara Chamber of Industry (ASO) on 7 December 2023. She continued to meet with real sector representatives at the Board of Directors Meeting of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) on 11 December 2023 and the Advisory Meeting with the Sectors Council of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) on 13 December 2023. At the meetings with real and financial sector representatives, the macroeconomic outlook, financial stability, CBRT policies and strategies, and the actions to be taken to establish disinflation were evaluated. Visual contents and general information about these meetings were shared on social media, while presentations and speeches delivered by Governor Erkan were published on the CBRT website in line with the transparency principle.

In 2023, the Economics for All microsite and the CBRT Blog started to be used more effectively to reinforce the communication with the general public with a view to enhancing confidence in CBRT policies. Accordingly, content about the disinflation process was released on the microsite and studies presenting the positive effects of CBRT policies were published on the CBRT blog. Efforts to improve these platforms continued throughout the year to reinforce the communication with the general public.

The CBRT continued to respond to requests for information and documents sent through various channels in the scope of the Right to Information Act, the Law on the Right to Petition, and the Regulation on the Republic of Türkiye Presidency’s Communication Center (CIMER). Applications processed duly in 2023 totaled 17,750 through petitions, the CBRT’s corporate e-mail address, the Right to Information Unit (BES) and the “For your questions” page on the CBRT website; 12,071 through CIMER; and 2,750 through the CBRT Complaint Management System.

2.10.3 Investor Relations

The CBRT continued to organize meetings with investor agencies and credit rating agencies (CRAs) in 2023. Seventy-six investor meetings were held with domestic and foreign institutional investors, economists, analysts and portfolio managers, and six meetings were held with CRAs. Through these meetings, the CBRT contacted a total of 304 investor agencies.

Table 2.10.3.1: Meetings Held in 2023

Moreover, in the scope of technical cooperation with other central banks, the CBRT held three video conferences on investor relations management and practices with the Bank of Mexico (Banco de México), the Central Bank of Brazil (Banco Central do Brasil), and the National Bank of Tajikistan.

In these video conferences, presentations were made and questions were answered on the organizational structures, business processes and activities of investor relations units at the CBRT and the respective central banks.

In addition, the CBRT announced in 2023 that it would organize Investor Days meetings for the first time. In this scope, the first of these Investor Days took place on 11 January 2024 in New York, which is one of the biggest finance centers and home to a large number of international financial institutions.