Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) Provides TRY 1 Billion in Loan Support to SMEs

İTO Chairman Oran: "The credit we will provide to our business world will be a breath of investment for growth champion Turkey"

The Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) will allocate 100 million lira to the second phase of the Breath Credit programme, which Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım announced today, offering SMEs a six-month principal payment deferral, 18-month maturity and a monthly interest rate of 0.99 percent. Through this programme, İTO member SMEs will be able to benefit from the resulting credit volume of 1 billion TL. In the second phase, the number of banks intermediating the credit will increase to six, including Ziraat Bankası, Denizbank, Halkbank, Vakıfbank and, for the first time, the public participation banks Ziraat Katılım and Vakıf Katılım, while interest and profit rates have been set well below market conditions. İTO Chairman Öztürk Oran stated, "The credit we will provide to our business world will be a breath of investment for growth champion Turkey." Oran said that the Breath Credit programme, pioneered by TOBB, would accelerate investments needed to sustain Turkey's economy's average growth of 7 percent.Oran added, "Turkey stands at the beginning of a brand new growth story with its strong economy and stance that shapes world politics. At this point, the continuation of the Breath Credit programme initiated by our President and Prime Minister in 2018 is undoubtedly very important for the business world." İTO Chairman Oran noted that thousands of companies benefited from the 200 million lira fund created by the amount allocated by the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce in the first phase, saying, "Now we are increasing this amount further. We have provided 1 billion lira in resources to the Breath Credit campaign this time. The real sector will focus more on investment opportunities with this second breath."