Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today, Tuesday that his government’s new economic measures took the country out of a so-called vicious cycle, and Turkey’s goal is to enter the top 10 economies of the world.

"Our way is investments, employment, production, export, and growth. Our goal is to enter top 10 world economies," said Erdogan at an awards ceremony of the TUBITAK council for scientific and technological studies.

"We lifted [Turkey] from under the wheels of instability, where it got stuck, and from under the mechanism of vulnerability," he added.

Turkish lira's ups and downs

Over the past year, the Turkish economy suffered a dramatic fall in the value of the national currency. It lost more than 50% of its value over the past year after the central bank dropped the interest rate several times in a row. In January, the lira was trading at 7.4 per US dollar, while on December 20 it fell to a record low of 18.4.

The lira reversed the downward trend after the Turkish President declared on Monday new measures to counter the instability of the currency, resulting in the lira compensating for the losses of the past weeks. Today, the lira is trading at 11.8 against the US dollar.

Turks protesting

More than 5000 people protested in mid-December in Istanbul against the lira's devaluation and the decrease in the purchasing power, marking the first major congregation in light of the problems that have plagued Turkey's economy for months. Protestors called for the government's resignation.

In the same context, Turkey's Diyar Bakr witnessed the protests of thousands of people against the government's economic policies and inflation, demanding better conditions for workers.