The Wall Street Journal published an interview with Turkey's Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek over the weekend, and quoted the minister as saying that Turkey could get hit hard by the euro zone's sovereign-debt troubles next year, but would bounce back strongly just as it did after the Lehman crisis.
In an hourlong interview with The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, Simsek echoed a confidence among Turkish officials that led European Union (EU) Minister Egemen Bagis to say last week: "Look out Europe, Turkey is coming to the rescue!"
The paper wrote that Turkey's economy was forecast to grow between 7% and 8% this year, after a 9% expansion in 2010, with little sign yet of any rapid slowdown.
Simsek said while Turkey could not decouple its economy from the European Union, its biggest export market and investor, fiscal headroom and strong fundamentals would allow it to respond.
"Yes, through trade channels, through other channels our macroeconomic performance may come under pressure," but Turkey won't suffer any "permanent damage," said Simsek.
Fallout from Europe's debt crisis for the world economy, including Turkey, could be "very significant," he added.He contrasted Turkey's ability to make quick decisions as a single-party government that has its own currency with the euro zone's need to reconcile 17 different governments, leaving them "behind the curve."
Simsek said he remained dedicated to Turkey joining the EU, despite its current woes.
"Everywhere I go people ask me: 'Why do you want to join the EU still?', " but that loses sight of what Europe has achieved, he said. The euro, however, was different.
"I think in retrospect that the U.K. was probably right" to stay out," he said. "Unless there is near-perfect cohesion among such diverse nations, then I think it is like a straitjacket," Simsek said.
The paper wrote that Simsek in many ways epitomized a new, more prosperous Turkey that felt able to offer lessons on structural reform and fiscal prudence to richer neighbors in the EU.
Turkey was negotiating to join the 27-nation economic and political union, but was being blocked by a number of countries, including France and Germany, the newspaper also wrote. |
Source : en.cumhuriyet.com
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