Daron Acemoğlu: Turkey is on the verge of collapse

PanARMENIAN.Net - Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) faculty member, economist Daron Acemoğlu believes that freedoms are being restricted in Turkey, where the future is very bleak, with the brightest young people beginning to go abroad.

“If a few people leave, there is no problem, but when the number is this high, it will lead to a collapse in development and Turkey is on the verge of this,” he added.

Speaking to Özlem Yüzak of dissident daily Cumhuriyet (via P.A. Turkey), Acemoglu evaluated the course of the Turkish economy and current developments.

Acemoglu commented on the economic program carried out under the management of Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek as follows:

“Frankly, I do not see any significant developments. Like everyone else, I want to be hopeful, but I still don’t have much hope inside me. It is already very difficult to reduce inflation once it reaches the current level. Also, there is no such thing as just reducing inflation and hoping that alone will improve economic performance. Turkey has much deeper problems… As I just mentioned, it is a system problem. Turkey now has a very small window left in front of it to develop, but it looks like we will miss the train.”

According to Acemoglu, sustainable economic development cannot be done by simply increasing interest rates and bringing funds from one or two banks abroad.

“Turkey does not use technology correctly. First of all, it is far behind in terms of fixed capital investment/GDP ratio. Most of the investments go to the construction sector, but worse, there are no qualified personnel. Those with less than high school education have difficulty using technology. Once again, it comes down to making the right choices to incentivize people. If there was technology available, even the less-educated would use it. There are AI technologies that gardeners, workers and electricians can use,” he said.

“In addition, since the young generation perceives Turkey’s future as very dark due to the restriction of freedom by politicians, the brightest young people began to go abroad. If a few people leave, there is no problem, but when the number is this high, it will lead to a collapse and Turkey is on the verge of this…”