Turkey’s economy pays the price for regime’s mistakes

Shaimaa Yehia

Stubbornness of Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party in the face of the coronavirus crisis is badly impacting the country’s economy.

Despite Turkey’s need of each lira to combat COVID-19, Erdogan insists on the military presence in Libya, giving financial support to the militias of the Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Negative forecast about the future of world economy have cast a shadow on the Middle East and Europe on the back of COVID-19, which increased the possibility of a recession, which may hit Turkey. Ankara has been suffering from economic turmoil even before the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Turkish lira reached its lowest level ever versus the US dollar in April 2020. The US dollar has reached 6.7311 liras.

The Turkish lira has been falling versus the dollar since October 2019. It declined further in February and in March by 4.35% and 5.9% respectively.

The inflation rate in Turkey rose to11.86% last month, according to Turkish official data.

Moreover, food prices in Turkey rose by 10.1% in March from 10.6% in February, according to official data.

Tarek Fahmy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, said that the Turkish government plans to continue its regional interventions, and to take advantage of the coronavirus domestically.

The professor accused Erdogan of mismanaging the crisis well.

“Although the lira has been affected significantly, the Turkish president is carrying out his interventions in Idlib, in the north of Syria, and in Libya. I believe these interventions are attempts by Erdogan to cover up his mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis,” Fahmy told THE REFERENCE.

“Erdogan refused to allow a number of WHO inspectors and experts to visit some areas in Turkey. He refused to give the WHO any information about the pandemic to follow up the conditions in the country,” the professor added.