It’s expensive to swan around as the regional hegemon. And really, even the confiscated upper middle class riches of the Gulenists will only go so far once they’re firmly imprisoned and no longer earning more in their drive to be the best at whatever they do. After that all that’s left is to go deeper in debt. Again.
[AlAhram] ...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
's inflation climbed to its highest level since 1998, hitting an annual 73.5 percent in May, official data showed Friday, an issue dogging President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than there are in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really most important...ahead of elections next year.
Critics have blamed the country's economic woes on Erdogan's unorthodox economic policy of pushing for lower interest rates to combat price rises.
The central bank refused again last week to raise its main rate, keeping it at 14 percent.
Soaring food and energy prices pushed inflation even higher last month.
Transport prices jumped by 107.6 percent in May while the food was up 91.6 percent.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
pandemic have exacerbated the energy price spikes and production bottlenecks.
With elections looming in June 2023, the opposition and many economists have accused the national statistics agency of deliberately underestimating the magnitude of inflation.
The Inflation Research Group, made up of independent
The statistics agency did not publish the detailed list of prices per product that serves as a basis for its calculations, a move that raised fresh doubts about the accuracy of official figures.
"According to my own observations, the gap between reality and what is measured has widened this month, with the goal of hiding impoverishment," economist Murat Kubilay wrote on Twitter.
RISK OF 'SYSTEMIC CRISIS'
The country's currency, meanwhile, has lost nearly 48 percent in value over the past year.
The collapse of the lira has pushed up the cost of energy imports and foreign investors are now turning away from the once-promising emerging market.
Rumours of military intervention in northern Syria further hit the value of the
Erdogan's government has responded by using state banks to buy up liras in a bid to cut the currency's losses.
Turkey has cut taxes on some goods and offered subsidies for electricity bills for vulnerable households but even this has failed to stem inflation.
There has also been speculation that the central bank sells dollars to stem the lira's slide.
"If we don't see change in policy the country faces a systemic economic crisis," Timothy Ash, emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said on Twitter.