UNDP head dervis: "Turkey's economy is at a crossroads"

Turkey's economy is at a crossroads and important problems need addressing, said United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) head Kemal Dervis yesterday. Speaking to the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (TUSIAD) Board of Directors, former Economy Minister Dervis, the architect of Turkey's economic recovery after the 2001 crisis, said that developments have allowed central banks to ignore certain inflationary tendencies and that Turkey, too, will suffer from the global economic slowdown. "When one considers past financial crises, each time we faced a huge recession, market and currency depreciations, and slowing growth," he said. "Today is similar. However, I'm an optimist. As we saw in the past, such crises were overcome in a relatively short period of time." He also warned that inflation redistributed wealth in favor of the rich and so caused social problems. "The poor need to be protected. Social policies need to be strengthened," he urged.