Bourse chief warns against becoming ‘slacked hare’

ISTANBUL

BIST head Turhan draws attention to the middle income trap.

The head of Turkey’s sole stock exchange has drawn an analogy between the Turkish economy and the famous fable of the tortoise and the hare to underline a warning against the middle-income trap.

Borsa Istanbul (BIST) Chairman İbrahim Turhan said the fact that per capita income has reached $11,000 could produce the complacency of the hare when more dedication and hard work is still required.

Delivering the closing speech of the Boğaziçi Manager Foundation Inspiring Best Practices Summit, Turhan praised the country’s economic progress in the past 10 years and said “giving up making mistakes deliberately as of 2001 has made Turkey successful in changing and leaping.”

However, he cautioned that the country is at “a very dangerous point.”

“The level that per income capita reached $11,000 is a point that can breed the slackness of the hare in the story of the tortoise and the hare,” he said.

“This is called the middle income trap. This trap is the point of languor which makes you settle for the level that you have arrived at and keeps you from introducing the structural reforms that will restore stability,” he said.