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Turkey’s Recipe to Escape the Middle-Income Trap

(Version in Türk)

Turkey is going through a time of economic transition, with slowing growth that risks the country being caught in a “middle-income trap,” unable to join the ranks of high income economies. 

The country grew at 6 percent per year on average in the period 2010-13, with policies supportive of domestic consumption. This has generated a large current account deficit, mostly financed by short-term capital flows. The reliance on consumption at the expense of investment, slow export growth, and sizable investment needs have hurt potential growth, with the economy already growing more modestly. Moreover, Turkey’s low domestic savings and competitiveness challenges have limited investment as well as exports, which have also suffered from the slow growth in Europe.

With current policies, Turkey's economy is expected to grow only 3.5 percent annually over the next five years. Going forward, the economy must be rebalanced to make it more competitive and to restore output and employment growth.

Four areas for rebalancing the economy 

The Turkish government’s economic policy agenda incorporates the right diagnosis of the economic needs, with macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that will need to be carefully sequenced:

Chart 2

For more details, see the IMF’s latest assessment of Turkey’s economy.

 

 

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