Turkey’s economy immune to crises: World Bank official

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

The country director for Turkey of the World Bank, Martin Raiser said that Turkey was immune to economic crises. AA photo

The Turkish economy will adapt to the changing conditions of the global economy, resulting from the latest decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to end the high liquidity party, said the country director for Turkey of the World Bank, Martin Raiser, speaking at a conference on the International Forum on Financial Systems yesterday. 

“Turkey has been immune to economic crises. The country faced its own crisis in the past and the latest global economic burst had a very limited effect on Turkey. And Turkey will easily adapt to the changing circumstances of the global economy,” he noted. Turkey grew 4.4 percent in the second quarter of the year, which was higher than expected. 

“This was surprising to us, I admit, but there were some indicators which had shown a surge in the growth rate, such as a healthy consumer confidence and strong tourism performance in Turkey,” he said. 
Raiser reminded about the Turkish economy’s need for continuous foreign direct investment flow and a highly competitive private sector. 

According to him, emerging markets are no longer about creating financial systems that just mobilize domestic resources or attract resources from the advanced economies. 

“Emerging markets need to achieve much greater degrees of regulatory harmonization and that also means the competition for capital amongst emerging markets is going to increase. There will certainly be a much greater role for banks from emerging markets, but it is not clear which emerging market banks are going to win over to intermediate capital flows from emerging to other emerging markets,” he noted.