pay wall
“pay wall”
The bottom line of the article is in the brief extract.
The long run up in the Turkish economy that buoyed Erdogan’s political rise, seems to be reversing. Wednesday was a big jolt to their system - interest rates jumped from 13.5 % to 16.5%, and the currency dropped 5% in one day. The lira is down 15% for the month of May.
The party is over.
Erdogan’s increasing authoritarian control has made it a much less safe place to invest. Capital flight and brain drain are now significant flows.
On the 14th of May, he made statements (to foreign financial folks) to the effect that he would take more control over the Central Bank. That seems to have started a rush for the exits.
Erdogan has been printing excess money and increasingly deficit spending, as he has centralized power. Presumably, he is now skimming a larger percent as well, because he has always been notably corrupt. The economic checks and balances instituted in 2000-2004, to make Turkey more compatible with the EU (responsible for much of Turkey’s big upswing), have been significantly reversed, especially since the 2016 coup attempt.
Turkey is quickly reverting to a despotic, corrupt economic model.