Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

The 'Respite Credits,’ actualized to provide access to finances for SMEs has given them much needed breathing room in just 3 months. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu explained that 27,000 SMEs have benefited from the project in the 3 months since the start of the project on December 12^th, 2016; the total loan volume has reached 2.6 billion TRY. Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the 'Respite Credits' created through the sacrifice of TOBB, the Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF), Ziraat Bank, Denizbank and TOBB’s chambers and commodity exchanges is an important boost for the business world with low interest rate. When it is completed, they would have provided 4 billion TRY in finances to SMEs.

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu, urging all SMEs in need of finances to make use of this opportunity, said, “Regarding the accessible finances provided by our Union and its chambers and stock exchanges as well as a 85% surety by KGF in addition to a 9.9% interest rate up to 150.000 TRY are utilized. This is a world first. We provide credit to our members, and we vouch for them. Credit costs are also lower than deposit rates. Today, in the banking sector, the banks are collecting deposits at 12%. We are using loans with interest below 10%.”

- Which sectors and provinces are at the forefront?

When the Respite Credit usage statistics are examined; Wholesale and retail, manufacturing, construction, transportation and warehousing were the sectors that used the most loans respectively. The wholesale and retail sectors have used nearly half of the total credit withdrawn. When we look at the sub-divisions of the manufacturing sector, the production of food products, the manufacture of metal products and the production of machinery and equipment sectors are at the top.

Respite Credit has been drawn in all provinces of Turkey. The most frequent use was in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Bursa and Kocaeli in that order. The credit volume reached 400 million in Istanbul, 350 million in Ankara and 200 million TRY in Izmir.