2.10 Communication

2.10.1 Accountability and Monetary Policy Communication

The CBRT aims to ensure that its decisive policies in pursuit of the objective of achieving price stability are understood by the public, thereby increasing the effectiveness of these policies. Accordingly, the Bank has enhanced the predictability of the monetary policy stance through strengthened communication with all its stakeholders in line with the principles of accountability and transparency.

As part of the accountability principle, Governor Karahan made presentations at the meetings of the Plan and Budget Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye on January 4 and October 3, 2024, and then answered questions from the Committee members.

Again, as entailed by the principle of accountability, the CBRT sent an Open Letter to the Government on April 5, 2024 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.

In the scope of the transparency principle, the CBRT continued to publish 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.

MPC announcements and Inflation Reports are 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. In 2024, inflation Report briefings were held on February 8, May 9, August 8 and November 8, in Ankara, led by Governor Karahan. Press members and economists wishing to attend the meeting were welcome. In these briefings, which were broadcast live on TV channels and the CBRT’s social media accounts, Governor Karahan delivered a presentation, followed by a question-and-answer session in which Deputy Governors Cevdet Akçay and Hatice Karahan, as well as Governor Karahan answered participants’ questions. As part of multilayered communication activities, the 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.

Within the scope of direct communication, Governor Karahan and Deputy Governors Cevdet Akçay and Hatice Karahan gave presentations and speeches in Türkiye and abroad based on CBRT monetary policy texts as well as various interviews. Accordingly, Governor Karahan’s interviews with Reuters on July 4 and Bloomberg News on July 12, Deputy Governor Cevdet Akçay’s interview with Reuters on July 26 and Deputy Governor Hatice Karahan’s interview with Reuters on September 4 were published. Besides, Governor Karahan delivered a presentation at the Dünya Newspaper Climate, Economy and Sustainable Finance Summit on June 7.

The CBRT published the MPC decisions and the summaries of MPC meetings on its website. It also published its Monetary Policy document on December 25, 2024, which described the general framework of the monetary policy that the Bank would pursue in 2025. In addition, the CBRT 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 71 press releases on its website in 2024, which were also made accessible to a wider audience through the corporate social media accounts.

The CBRT continued to share with the public the summary of the developments regarding financial stability 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 2024.

2.10.2 Communication with the General Public

The general public, members of the press, and real sector representatives remained the important target audiences of CBRT communications in 2024. Throughout the year, the CBRT actively used digital communication tools to inform various target groups and aimed to reach out to these audiences through a two-way communication and the use of plain language.

Making intensive use of its website, the main communication channel, the CBRT continued its communication activities in 2024 through all its social media accounts, especially X (Twitter) and LinkedIn. Throughout 2024, all reports, statistics and visuals used in monetary policy communication were structured according to the target audience and announced to the public in a timely and transparent manner via appropriate social media platforms. In addition to the existing X accounts that are actively used, a new X account named TCMB Ekonomik Araştırmalar (@TCMB_Arastirma) was launched in 2024. The new account aims to increase the visibility of announcements and content related to the academic publications and research activities of the staff.

For ease of access to data and content on the CBRT’s website, two new enhancements were launched in the Electronic Data Delivery System (EVDS), namely the ‘Major Indicators’ page, which presents charts pertaining to certain data, and the ‘Advanced Search’ function, which improves the search feature in monetary policy texts.

As part of the active and two-way communication with stakeholders, Governor Karahan met with the Board of Directors of the Banks Association of Türkiye (BAT) and the Participation Banks Association of Türkiye (TKBB) on April 2, 2024, and meetings with these associations continued throughout the year. Conducting an effective communication, Governor Karahan also met with representatives of the business circles and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as with the Board of Directors of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB) at a meeting hosted by the Turkish Chamber of Shipping on September 29, 2024. Governor Karahan attended the November meeting of the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) on November 27, 2024 and the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) Board of Directors meeting on December 9, 2024 and made presentations at these meetings. 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 elements and general information about these meetings were shared on social media, while presentations and speeches delivered by Governor Karahan were published on the CBRT website in line with the transparency principle.

In 2024, in order to enhance the effectiveness of policies via stronger communication with the general public, the CBRT enriched its blog (CBRT Blog) with articles that could contribute to CBRT policies and strategies simultaneously. Accordingly, 19 new analyses were published on the blog, drawing attention to current economic developments and sharing views on macroeconomics and central banking. Additionally, the CBRT also sought improvements to its blog page to increase its effectiveness. The actions to this end included increasing the readability of blog posts and making it easier to share posts on different platforms.

The ‘Economics for All’ microsite, which aims to reach out to different segments of society in relation to financial literacy and economic education, was enriched with new content that would contribute to a better understanding of CBRT policies and current economic developments.

The e-government authentication feature was incorporated into the Right to Information System. Additionally, by placing QR codes directed to the Right to Information page in its branches, the CBRT became able to receive direct feedback from branch visitors in the digital environment.

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 2024 totaled 7,595 through petitions, the CBRT’s corporate e-mail address, the Right to Information Unit (BES) and the “Contact Us” page on the CBRT website; 14,081 through CIMER; and 3,800 through the CBRT Complaint Management System.

2.10.3 Investor Relations

The CBRT continued to organize meetings with institutional investors and credit rating agencies (CRAs) in 2024. Eighty-six investor meetings were held with domestic and foreign institutional investors, economists, analysts and portfolio managers, and eight meetings were held with CRAs. Through these meetings, the CBRT contacted a total of 812 investor agencies.

Table 2.10.3.1: Meetings Held in 2024

Moreover, in the scope of technical cooperation with other central banks, the CBRT held a video conference on investor relations management and practices with the Central Bank of Indonesia (Bank Indonesia). In this video conference, mutual presentations were made and questions were answered on the organizational structures, business processes and activities of investor relations units at both central banks.

The 2024 Investor Day, organized by the CBRT for the first time in 2024, was held on January 11, 2024 with the participation of the Governor and Deputy Governors in New York, one of the major financial centers and home to a large number of international financial institutions. These meetings attracted 85 institutional investors. On the sidelines of the Investor Day meetings, bilateral talks were also held with leading investor institutions, portfolio managers and economists.

Last but not least, investor meetings were held with 450 institutions with the participation of the Governor and Deputy Governors during the IMF-World Bank (WB) Spring Meetings on April 15-20, 2024 and the IMF-WB Annual Meetings on October 21-26, 2024. Additionally, the CBRT met with investor institutions at the Qatar Economic Forum held on May 14-16, 2024. At these meetings, the Bank shared with the participants its monetary policy and assessment of the latest developments in the Turkish economy. All these efforts contributed to a timely, accurate and effective monetary policy communication.