Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday insisted he was not instructing capital flows to be limited a day after he said moving assets abroad was an act of treason. But he urged businessmen and women to show a "domestic, national" stance while the country was "coming under attack from elsewhere".
"I do not have any instructions for the restriction on capital flows," Erdoğan told a conference in the capital.
Erdoğan declared Sunday that businessmen who move assets abroad are committing "treason", adding that his government should put an end to the practice.
Turkey is bound to a free market economy. Everyone in Turkey has the right to transfer money abroad since 1989 and this right is in place today," he said
"Without a doubt, it continues as before."
But Erdoğan urged businessmen and women to show a "domestic, national" stance while the country was "coming under attack from elsewhere".
"We have nothing to say against anyone who transfers resources abroad for investment purposes, or who is seeking export opportunities, or engaged in trade activities. What I am talking about is that our businessmen should show a patriotic stance at a time when there are attempts to put our country under economic pressure in addition to other attacks," Erdoğan said.
"If in this period, they do not stake a claim to the country's economy, when will they do so? I'm sorry but business people who do not trust their country... as it goes towards possible double-digit GDP growth in the third quarter are not patriotic," he added.
