![]() Turkey’s citizens and companies borrow significantly in dollars and euros. The problem for Turkey, a country without energy resources and only its human expertise and cheap labour to sell is that the vast majority of the funding for industrial development, construction and real estate comes from abroad: American and European investors. Turkey’s capitalist economy could not handle this, just at a time that the US dollar strengthened after the US Federal Reserve began to raise US interest rates. He insisted on keeping interest rates low and blocked any action to curb fast-rising inflation by Turkey’s central bank, describing interest rates as “the mother and father of all evil”. After the botched attempted military coup against him in 2016, Erdogan launched a credit boom to boost the economy while locking up thousands and sacking even more from their jobs in academic and government positions. That was the fast deteriorating economic situation. That was the trigger but it was not the revolver that now is pointed at the head of Turkey’s economy. “Doubling the tariff on imports of steel from Turkey will further reduce these imports that the department found threaten to impair national security,” said Ross. Then on Friday, Wilbur Ross, US commerce secretary, said the US would double the tariff on imports of Turkish steel to 50 per cent, because the previous level of 25 per cent had not been enough to sufficiently reduce Turkish exports to the US. His detention is just one of a number of disagreements between Turkey and the US that range over divergent stances on Syria to the delivery of US arms. ![]() The pastor has described the charges as “slander”. Mr Brunson, who ran a small church in Turkey for two decades before he was arrested in October 2016, is accused of participating in a conspiracy to topple Mr Erdogan. What triggered the crisis was when the US imposed asset freezes on Abdulhamit Gul, Turkey’s justice minister, and Suleyman Soylu, interior minister, for their alleged roles in the detention of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor. The turkeys have come home to roost on the country’s economy and the erratic economic policy of its autocratic (recently re-elected) leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ![]() ![]() ![]() It has lost 40% of its value against the dollar in the last six months and fell nearly 20% in the last week. ![]()
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