Does Türkiye’s economic crisis have global causes?

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, during the past days, with The rejection of the US dollar rate from 32 lira in the Turkish market has raised criticism of Erdogan’s government, and critics have declared that he still has not fulfilled his election promises and has not been able to find a way to overcome the crisis, but Erdogan himself does not have such an attitude.

In his latest speech, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, introducing one of the candidates of the ruling party for the municipal elections, cleared his shoulders of criticism and announced that inflation is one of the disasters. The world is today and it is not only Turkey that has faced such a problem. /Uploaded/Image/1402/12/06/1402120613563657829460244.jpg”/>

The leader of the Justice and Development Party and the President of Turkey said: “We can never solve the problems of our people’s daily lives ignore We give priority to dealing with the issue of employment and production in political economy. As you know, inflation is the bane of the whole world and it has caused us problems as well. Global inflation has upset all markets, and in addition to the consequences of this global inflation, we are still facing the consequences of the huge earthquake of 2023, which caused a lot of damage, and we rightly called it the disaster of the century.”

Erdogan continued: “Despite all the difficulties, we did not allow any problem to embarrass our citizens.” We successfully managed the fight against Corona. We did not allow the war between Russia and Ukraine to spread to our country. We continue our efforts to end this war that has negative effects on the entire world. We are trying to unite the Muslim world against the Israeli attack”. Turkish President Erdogan answered about the economy.

He wrote: “The inflation rate in Turkey has broken world records and reached an unprecedented level. It may be difficult for the president to accept this fact, but this figure is the second highest in the world. Erdogan claims that inflation in Turkey is part of a global problem, but it is not. Argentina ranks first with an inflation rate of 254 percent, Turkey ranks second with 64.7 percent, and Russia, whose economy has been damaged by the effects of war, ranks third with 7.4 percent. South Africa came in fourth with 5.3 percent. All these are caused by wrong policies and inefficient governance.” According to Ozjan, the main reason for high inflation in Turkey is the continuous implementation of Erdogan’s individualistic and one-time economic policies.

He stated that as a result of these policies, Turkey has entered a spiral path of deep inflation, he said: “It is necessary for the central bank to take extraordinary measures to brake the economy in the post-election period. This situation shows that Turkey is one of the few countries that has to deal with high inflation due to wrong economic policies. The inflation problem in Turkey is the result of specific policies rather than a global phenomenon”.

Prices in Turkey are constantly changing and the government has not done much. Because the fluctuation of currency price, increase in import costs and increase in production cost, caused the price to rise. It should not be considered an illegal and greedy action, but out of necessity and compulsion. Previously, Erdogan’s government took strict measures in the field of monitoring and fighting against high prices. But now he has come to the conclusion that selling at high prices is not due to the greed of merchants and bankers, and if he wants to be too strict on them, the tax and customs revenues of the government will also be lost. But the issue is not that simple and there are serious criticisms on the work of the government. Union of Turkish Tradesmen and Tradesmen or Tusiad, as the most important economic institution of the private sector of this country, openly criticizes the government and declares that Erdoğan’s recent decisions have caused many problems and the new team has not been able to take effective action.

Gizm Oztuk Altinsach, TÜSİAD’s chief economist, announced that the Turkish government has lost the ability to control inflation and the policies of the Erdogan government’s economic team have not only done nothing, but It has imposed new costs on the people.

At a conference titled Turkey’s Economy in 2024, which was held in collaboration with Koç University and TÜSİAD, Altinsach pointed out that Erdogan’s government In only the first 11 years of his rule, he was able to have a good economic performance, and since the end of 2013, the government has no ability to control the market and has not been able to curb inflation.

He said: “The programs and policies implemented in the past and today are not only not valid, but have put a heavy cost on the Turkish economy”.

Altinsach in He further said: “The predictions of the central bank about the ups and downs of inflation in the coming months are very optimistic and far from reality. Therefore, these forecasts will not be realized and we expect the inflation rate to remain above 73%.” He criticized the missed opportunities and the insufficient implementation of policies in the past. And he also mentioned the lack of productivity growth in the Turkish economy as the source of problems, because low productivity figures in the last decade have made economic success unstable.

Babajan: Erdoğan is to blame

Ali Babajan, the leader of the Leash and Democracy Party, who once held the helm of Turkey’s economy and He was one of Erdoğan’s confidants, now he strongly criticizes his policies and believes that Erdoğan’s team has actually led Turkey to the abyss of poverty and bankruptcy.

Babajan in a speech yesterday He also broadcasted a video file in the group of economic activists in Istanbul, in which several retired old men announced in an interview with reporters that they are in trouble even to buy minimal necessities.

He said: “The government that emerged from the Justice and Development Party destroyed democracy and forced all the media to support Erdogan.” Meanwhile, Erdogan’s policies have led people to the abyss of poverty. Issues such as rising rents, unprecedented food prices and widespread poverty have forced people to stand in long queues to receive a small discount. I advise Erdoğan’s team to google the terms “cheap meat queue”, “cheap bread queue” and “cheap food queue” and check the resulting images. All these pictures are related to the past two years and are the product of the wrong policies of the current government. Mr. Erdogan, watch the photos and videos of citizens waiting in line and remember that you are the producer, director and screenwriter of the videos you see. All those videos are your work. You are leading Turkey in the path of poverty and injustice”. The policies of the government are collapsing”.

Bread is one of the most important and strategic food items for Turkish citizens, and due to the continuous increase in the price of gas, electricity and flour, the cost of bread is constantly increasing. As a result, we are going to see the price of bread increase again in the coming days. Even now, a 200-gram loaf of bread is sold at the price of 5.5 to 7 lira, and many citizens stand in line to buy stale and cheap bread for 4 lira.

Kholuk Tezcan, the head of the Turkish Flour Industrialists Federation (TUSAF) has announced that the current situation of wheat price increase will directly affect the price of bread and the low income groups of Turkey will have more economic problems in the coming month.

Tezjan said: “In Turkey, bread has become the main food of millions of households, and low-income people have a very high consumption of flour. If there is no good price, this densely populated part of Turkey will face problems. Therefore, the government should adopt a supportive policy in this area and pay a part of the increase in costs. The price of a ton of wheat around the world is around 220 dollars, but it has reached 320 dollars in Turkey”.

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