Skip to footer

Turkey's big slowdown not yet felt on the street

The economy remains a more distant concern for Turks, many of whom have turned their attention to other political questions. But one indication of brewing trouble is the weakening currency.

|
Umit Bektas/Reuters/File
A vendor sells potatoes and other vegetables to a customer in an open market in central Ankara, Turkey, February 5, 2014.
  • By Elizabeth Dickinson Correspondent

For months, economists have been predicting that Turkey’s rapid growth will stall in 2014. Yet while there are ominous signs of a decline, for now, the predicted slowdown looms at a distance: dampening moods but not much else.

“The economic slowdown hasn’t really materialized on the street quite yet, so there isn’t a huge level of alarm,” explains our correspondent in Istanbul. “That may change as the economic slowdown makes itself felt – 2 percent gross domestic product growth is predicted this year. When unemployment starts rising, you could see higher levels of social unrest.”

Turkey’s young, developing economy needs an estimated 5 percent growth to absorb new entrants to the job market. In 2010 and 2011, it was well above that level, expanding by 9.2 and then 8.8 percent, respectively. 2014′s growth is likely to be significantly below the 5 percent threshold.

One indication of brewing trouble has been the lira-to-dollar exchange rate.... For the rest of the story, continue reading at our new business publication Monitor Global Outlook.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Turkey's big slowdown not yet felt on the street
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2014/0317/Turkey-s-big-slowdown-not-yet-felt-on-the-street
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe