Mehmet Şimşek (born 1 January 1967) is a Turkish politician and economist, who has been serving as the Minister of Treasury and Finance since 4 June 2023.

As finance minister, Şimşek formulated fiscal policy which helped Turkey recover strongly from the global financial crisis of 2008.

[3] Following his graduation from high school, he opened a shop for a short while but then began to study economy at the Gazi University in Ankara, later switching to politics.

Şimşek previously worked as the chief economist and strategist for the emerging Europe, the Middle East and Africa region at Merrill Lynch in London for 7 years.

Turkey experienced a reduction in economic growth in 2014, blamed by the government mainly on the problems in the Eurozone, with much of it allegedly due to political uncertainty in the country.

The sudden decline caused the Central Bank of Turkey to make a written intervention, with the opposition criticising President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for intervening in economic affairs despite his neutral and ceremonial role.

The economy was seen as so fragile due to the political uncertainty that a single speech by Erdoğan caused the lira to rapidly lose its value against the dollar soon after.

[7] Şimşek has since defended his record as finance minister, stating that his government was being unfairly targeted despite managing to keep its budget commitments under heavy economic pressures.

[9] In the run-up to the June 2015 general election, Şimşek stated that populism by opposition parties would be the most significant threat to Turkey's economy, stating that the Republican People's Party's policy of increasing the minimum wage to ₺1,500 would be devastating to workers, alleging that the extra cost of hiring workers would lead to unemployment.