Erdogan raising fuel prices as his country faces economic crisis

Indiana Khaled

Turkish citizens are paying the price of the economic failures of their country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They are also paying the price of Erdogan’s support to terrorist organizations.

The coronavirus outbreak in Turkey comes to compound the economic suffering of Turkish citizens.

The Turkish government has hiked the price of fuel for the third time in less than 60 days, even as oil prices continue to come down in international markets because of the coronavirus crisis.

In raising the price of fuel, the Turkish government overlooks the economic suffering of citizens whose livelihoods were negatively affected by deteriorating economic conditions as well as by the economic effects of the coronavirus.

Confusion

Turkey’s inflation rate rose to 11.8% in March, according to the Turkish Statistics Agency.

The Turkish government links the price of fuel to the exchange rate of the Turkish lira against the US dollar. The Turkish lira is losing ground against the US dollar, standing now at 7 liras a dollar.

The latest increase in the price of gasoline is the second in less than two weeks and the third in less than a month.

Libyan money

Head of the Liquidity Crisis Panel at the Central Bank of Libya, Ramzi al-Agha, revealed that Turkey holds back Libyan funds in Turkish banks.

“It wants to use this money in compensating the economic losses it sustained in the last period,” al-Agha said.

He said the Central Bank of Libya has total reserves of $80 billion.

The bank, he said, had transferred some of these funds to Turkish banks in the past period.

Al-Agha’s statements came only two months after the Libyan Central Bank transferred $4 billion to Turkey.

He said Libyans cannot claim the funds the central bank transferred to Turkey in the past period.

Recession

Turkish affairs specialist Bashir Abdel Fattah said Erdogan had failed in dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

“Instead of addressing the crisis, Erdogan kept bragging about his country’s strength,” Abdel Fattah told The Reference.

He added that Erdogan faces a major economic crisis these days because of his misguided policies.