Süleyman Yaşar

LUXURY CAR IMPORTS ARE MORE THAN THE CURRENT ACCOUNT DEFICITIn the Basic Economic Aggregates table in the Medium-Term Program, the current account balance excluding gold is given. Again, energy imports are given as a separate item and compared with the current account balance. In other words, it is tried to be placed in mind that if there were no gold and energy imports, there would be no current account deficit and even a surplus current account account.However, the current account deficit means spending more than it produces( GDP), and the current account balance account has no meaning except for energy and gold. Let’s give an example: Turkey’s automobile imports in 2024 are 31.6 billion dollars. A large part of these imports are luxury car imports. So, since the current account deficit for 2024 is 10.4 billion dollars, if luxury car imports were not so large, there would be no current account deficit and even a current account surplus.The situation is no different in the first seven months of this year. In this period, the current account deficit was 21.2 billion dollars and automobile imports were 21.1 billion dollars. In short, it would be more meaningful to consider this luxury vehicle import when giving the current account balance. Let’s state it again, the current account deficit is spending more than it produces. The part that is spent more than it produces creates the current account deficit and is financed by debt. Therefore, except for gold, excluding energy, the discourses have no meaning in macroeconomic analysis. It would be beneficial to abandon this strange discourse in macroeconomic tables.