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Southeast Europe
April 5, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
With Turkey in recession and Erdogan wounded by a set of bad results in the elections, raising inter- est rates to ease economic pain for Turks might harm an already weak economy.
However, “Erdogan has a track record of choos- ing politically expedient short-term fixes that are badly received by markets. History may be about to repeat itself,” wrote Dasha Afanasieva for Reu- ters BreakingViews.
“Setbacks that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party suffered in Sunday’s local elections will prod him into making the wrong economic policy choices. He is all the more likely
now to opt for short-term fixes rather than the more profound changes that investors want but which would take time to combat recession,” she added.
She added: “Foreign investors are also unhappy with the current course of economic policy. They would like the Turkish government to promote private-sector investment, keep a tight lid on
the budget deficit, and give the central bank free rein to do its job. Erdogan said on Sunday he was committed to an economic programme that would not compromise free markets. But there have sometimes been divergences between rhetoric and actions.”