In the face of the economic crisis of imperialism, Turkey, too, is experiencing the sharpest drop in economic performance since the beginning of its own data collection (1998): GDP fell by a whole 11 percent from the first to the second quarter of 2020. Since the beginning of the year, the value of the lira has also fallen continuously, reaching a record low of less than one-seventh of a US dollar in August.
Turkey is thus in the grip of another currency crisis after the one two years ago, but this time it is much more intense. Bourgeois economists blame interest rate policy for this - despite high inflation, the key interest rate was lowered last year in a relaxation cycle to 8.25%, a good third of the value before, and has now not been raised again. The strategy behind this is to revive the economy and increase the too low ratio of exports to imports. But the relaxation has led to a negative real interest rate due to high inflation, which is why investments by imperialist finance capital in Turkey are declining. The Turkish economy is thus in a bind. Meanwhile, the state is plundering the central bank's foreign exchange reserves, which subsequently dropped from the equivalent of USD 81 billion to USD 51 billion this year alone, and is taking large loans to counter the effects of the economic crisis. How these measures are passed on to the people is shown by the fall of the minimum wage from the equivalent of 350 to 267 euros within a few months - during, as mentioned, strong inflation.
