The link between one-man rule and economic crisis in Turkey
It is now clear that the Turkish government has failed on inflation and its official goal of slowing annual price increases to 5 percent. Official inflation is now more than four times that figure at 21.3 percent .
In fact, according to ENAG’s data, current inflation is more than ten times the government’s target. Meanwhile, the Turkish lira has lost almost 50 percent of its value against the dollar in 2021, making it the worst-performing of all emerging market currencies.
In recent years, with the increasing frequency of economic crisis or volatility in Turkey, one of the most important problems has become income inequality.
The World Inequality Report 2022, produced by the World Inequality Lab, shows that income inequality has risen over the past years in Turkey even as its national wealth more than doubled. The informative report explains that the bottom 50 percent of income earners own only 4 percent of national wealth. The top 10 percent hold 67 percent of it. This indicates that a significant majority of people in Turkey are relatively very poor, and there is a huge gap between the rich and poor.
While the bottom 50 percent receive an average income of 20,260 liras annually, the top 10 percent earn 463,020 liras, 23 times more. This huge income inequality between rich and poor undermines the fight against poverty, damages social mobility and equal opportunity.
One of the methods to measure the degree of inequality in income distribution is the Gini coefficient which takes a value between 0 and 1. A coefficient of 0 means there is an equal distribution of income, whereas a number closer to 1 indicates greater inequality.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), Turkey’s Gini coefficient increased from 0.395 to 0.410 in 2020, reaching the highest level since 2010. When we look at the European Union (EU), we see that the Gini coefficient in the average of 27 EU member states was 0.302 in 2019, significantly lower than in Turkey, based on Eurostat data. This means that Turkey appears to be more unequal than any EU country.
I compared the Gini coefficient of Turkey and EU countries on purpose because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan believes that all EU countries are worse than Turkey in terms of wealth and accessing basic needs. In October 2021, he said: “You see the state of America and England, right? No gasoline. Likewise queues in France in Germany. They cannot find food. Alhamdulillah, there is no such thing in our country.”
However, the World Inequality Report 2022, Eurostat data, and TÜİK research clearly show that the president’s claims make no sense. His statement indicates that he not only has no clue about the reasons for large income inequality, but also for the causes of high inflation and the Turkish lira’s troubles recently.
For sure, there are many reasons why income inequality has continued to increase in the last 15 years in Turkey. But, one of the biggest reasons is his government’s policies.
Erdoğan and his team have ruled as a single-party government since 2002. In 2017, the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted a controversial 18-article constitutional amendment package to transform the country’s political system from parliamentary to presidential. The amendment provided the president with vast new powers, which strengthened his influence over the judiciary and the Grand National Assembly. As expected, the new presidential regime evolved into one-man rule as Erdoğan took control of almost everything, from politics to the economy to arts.
The concentration of power in one man’s hands is one of the main reasons for Turkey’s social, political, and economic problems.
When we look at the World Inequality Report 2022, Eurostat data, and TÜİK research, we see that Erdoğan’s economic policy works for a small number of wealthy people, not the majority of poor people, as income inequality has increased significantly in the last 15 years.
Unless you are among the privileged few, or earn in foreign currency, everything in Turkey is getting super expensive due to runaway inflation and a currency crisis. Queues of hundreds of people have formed across the country to buy cheaper bread at kiosks run by local municipalities. This underscores that Erdoğan’s economic policies under one-man rule have failed and he is now leading Turkey deeper into the economic abyss.
The government in Turkey must now change. Enough is enough. It is a great shame that the people of Turkey have been forced to line up for hours to buy bread, one of the basic needs of human sustenance.
ahvalnews.com
Erdogan is the neoliberal killer of Turks!
- Cevdet Acu
- Dec 15 2021 01:04 Gmt+3
- Last Updated On: Dec 15 2021 01:11 Gmt+3
It is now clear that the Turkish government has failed on inflation and its official goal of slowing annual price increases to 5 percent. Official inflation is now more than four times that figure at 21.3 percent .
In fact, according to ENAG’s data, current inflation is more than ten times the government’s target. Meanwhile, the Turkish lira has lost almost 50 percent of its value against the dollar in 2021, making it the worst-performing of all emerging market currencies.
In recent years, with the increasing frequency of economic crisis or volatility in Turkey, one of the most important problems has become income inequality.
The World Inequality Report 2022, produced by the World Inequality Lab, shows that income inequality has risen over the past years in Turkey even as its national wealth more than doubled. The informative report explains that the bottom 50 percent of income earners own only 4 percent of national wealth. The top 10 percent hold 67 percent of it. This indicates that a significant majority of people in Turkey are relatively very poor, and there is a huge gap between the rich and poor.
While the bottom 50 percent receive an average income of 20,260 liras annually, the top 10 percent earn 463,020 liras, 23 times more. This huge income inequality between rich and poor undermines the fight against poverty, damages social mobility and equal opportunity.
One of the methods to measure the degree of inequality in income distribution is the Gini coefficient which takes a value between 0 and 1. A coefficient of 0 means there is an equal distribution of income, whereas a number closer to 1 indicates greater inequality.
According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), Turkey’s Gini coefficient increased from 0.395 to 0.410 in 2020, reaching the highest level since 2010. When we look at the European Union (EU), we see that the Gini coefficient in the average of 27 EU member states was 0.302 in 2019, significantly lower than in Turkey, based on Eurostat data. This means that Turkey appears to be more unequal than any EU country.
I compared the Gini coefficient of Turkey and EU countries on purpose because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan believes that all EU countries are worse than Turkey in terms of wealth and accessing basic needs. In October 2021, he said: “You see the state of America and England, right? No gasoline. Likewise queues in France in Germany. They cannot find food. Alhamdulillah, there is no such thing in our country.”
However, the World Inequality Report 2022, Eurostat data, and TÜİK research clearly show that the president’s claims make no sense. His statement indicates that he not only has no clue about the reasons for large income inequality, but also for the causes of high inflation and the Turkish lira’s troubles recently.
For sure, there are many reasons why income inequality has continued to increase in the last 15 years in Turkey. But, one of the biggest reasons is his government’s policies.
Erdoğan and his team have ruled as a single-party government since 2002. In 2017, the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted a controversial 18-article constitutional amendment package to transform the country’s political system from parliamentary to presidential. The amendment provided the president with vast new powers, which strengthened his influence over the judiciary and the Grand National Assembly. As expected, the new presidential regime evolved into one-man rule as Erdoğan took control of almost everything, from politics to the economy to arts.
The concentration of power in one man’s hands is one of the main reasons for Turkey’s social, political, and economic problems.
When we look at the World Inequality Report 2022, Eurostat data, and TÜİK research, we see that Erdoğan’s economic policy works for a small number of wealthy people, not the majority of poor people, as income inequality has increased significantly in the last 15 years.
Unless you are among the privileged few, or earn in foreign currency, everything in Turkey is getting super expensive due to runaway inflation and a currency crisis. Queues of hundreds of people have formed across the country to buy cheaper bread at kiosks run by local municipalities. This underscores that Erdoğan’s economic policies under one-man rule have failed and he is now leading Turkey deeper into the economic abyss.
The government in Turkey must now change. Enough is enough. It is a great shame that the people of Turkey have been forced to line up for hours to buy bread, one of the basic needs of human sustenance.
The link between one-man rule and economic crisis in Turkey | Ahval
The Turkish government’s policy failures now mean an economic crisis in the country is deepening quickly. According to unofficial data from the ENAG Inflation Research Group, annual inflation in Turkey stood at 58.7 percent in November, hitting low-income households in particular as food prices...
Erdogan is the neoliberal killer of Turks!
