Turkey, an Emerging Market Economy Essay example

Submitted By erikochan
Words: 808
Pages: 4

Turkey
The economy of Turkey is defined as an emerging market economy by the IMF[34] and the country is one of the developed countries according to CIA,[35] making Turkey also one of the world's newly industrialized countries. The country is among the world's leading producers of agricultural products; textiles; motor vehicles, ships and other transportation equipment; construction materials; consumer electronics and home appliances. In recent years, Turkey had a rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in industry, banking, transport, and communications.
Turkey has the world's 17th largest nominal GDP,[36] and 15th largest GDP by PPP.[36] The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since December 31, 1995, Turkey is also a part of the EU Customs Union.

While many economies have been unable to recover from the recent global financial recession, the Turkish economy expanded by 9.2% in 2010, and 8.5 percent in 2011, thus standing out as the fastest growing economy in Europe, and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Hence, Turkey has been meeting the “60 percent EU Maastricht criteria” for public debt stock since 2004. Similarly, from 2002 to 2011, the budget deficit decreased from more than 10 percent to less than 3 percent, which is one of the EU Maastricht criteria for the budget balance.[6]

The CIA classifies Turkey as a developed country.[37] Turkey is often classified as a newly industrialized country by economists and political scientists;[38][39][40] while Merrill Lynch, the World Bank, and The Economist describe Turkey as an emerging market economy.[41][42][43]

The World Bank classifies Turkey as an upper-middle income country in terms of the country's per capita GDP in 2007.[43] Mean graduate pay was $10.02 per manhour in 2010.

According to a survey by Forbes, Istanbul, Turkey's financial capital, had a total of 28 billionaires as of March 2010 (down from 34 in 2008[44]), ranking 4th in the world behind New York City (60 billionaires), Moscow (50 billionaires), and London (32 billionaires).[45]

In 2009 the Turkish government introduced various economic stimulus measures to reduce the impact of the 2007–2012 global financial crisis such as temporary tax cuts on automobiles, home appliances, and housing. As a result, the production of durable consumer goods increased by 7.2%, despite a decrease in automotive production.[46]

The Turkish Stock Market and credit rating agencies have responded positively. According to The Economist, share prices in Turkey nearly doubled over the course of 2009.[47] On 8 January 2010, International credit rating agency Moody's upgraded Turkey's rating one notch.[48] In 2012, Fitch upgraded Turkey's credit rating to investment grade (long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) was upgraded to BBB- (from BB+) and long-term local currency IDR was upgraded to BBB (from BB+)) after an 18-year gap;[49] this was followed by a ratings upgrade by Moody's in May 2013, as the service lifted Turkey's government bond ratings to the lowest investment grade Baa3. The decision is Moody's first investment-grade rating for Turkey in two decades and the service stated in its official statement that the nation's "recent and expected future improvements in key economic and public finance metrics" was the basis for the ratings boost.[50][51]

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that Turkey was one of the rare countries whose