As Turkey?s economy struggles, Erdogan goes it alone

In a survey by the Turkish polling company Metropoll released in December, about 75 percent of respondents said their trust in the government’s economic policies had decreased over the past year.As Turkey’s economy suffers, Erdogan’s opponents step up efforts aimed at unseating himFor those who have watched Turkey’s development over years, including from inside the halls of power, the government’s current approach is a startling contrast to that of Erdogan’s early tenure, when he and members of his party largely deferred to technocrats carrying out reforms aimed at repairing an economy in ruin.“The institutions are there to tell the truth to politicians,” said Hakan Kara, a former chief economist at Turkey’s Central Bank who left two years ago and now teaches at Ankara’s Bilkent University. And Erdogan had no problem with any of this.”Kara, who joined the Central Bank in 2002, said that under the IMF program, which was mostly prepared by Turkish technocrats, the banking system was rehabilitated, and foreign direct investment increased as trust in Turkey’s institutions started to improve.“It was the best of all worlds,” he said, adding that Turkey’s economy was growing as inflation plummeted, from near 80 percent to 8 percent annually.Others have said that Erdogan and his party — which clashed at times with the IMF over requirements of the program — had no choice but to implement it, given the state of the economy and the government’s strong desire at the time to join the European Union.