ANKARA, Feb 26 (AFP): With the Turkish government already facing protests over its clampdown on Internet sites and the media, new credit card restrictions are now adding shoppers and retailers to the list of angry citizens.
Turkey's banking regulator introduced new rules earlier this month to clamp down on the use of widely used credit card instalment plans, in a bid to stem spending on imports and rein in the ballooning current account deficit.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government also hopes to rein in personal debt in a country where many use credit card instalments to pay for items as small as bread. Under the new rules, consumers are no longer allowed to defer payments on small items such as food, petrol and mobile phones.
Payments for larger items-such as TVs, furniture and fridges-can only be delayed up to nine months.
"I have lived abroad for many years. Nowhere else in the world has anything like instalments for credit cards," Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek said in January.
"We want our citizens to cut their cloth according to their means. Consumers should be rational."
Turkey\\\'s credit card crackdown irks consumers
FE Team | Published: February 27, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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