Governor of the Central Bank Discusses Turkey and the Global Economic Crisis

Dr. Erdem Başçı, Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey, spoke at Bilkent University on the evening of October 12. A large audience took the opportunity to hear what Dr. Başçı, the most important monetary authority in the country, had to say about the post-global monetary policies of the Central Bank following the global economic crisis.

Assoc. Prof. Bilin Neyaptı of the Department of Economics and Ömer Karaduman of the Bilkent Economics Research Community (BERC) gave brief opening remarks and introduced Dr. Başçı. He began his talk by noting that he had planned to give a formal presentation on the state of the monetary climate in Turkey, but seeing so many Bilkent students and staff reminded him of his own student days, including his MBA and PhD studies at Bilkent.

Dr. Başçı then turned to his main subject, the recent global economic crisis and the future outlook for Turkey. He outlined the problems that the Turkish economy had faced and how it had dealt with the crisis in comparison to other developing countries.

The perspective Dr. Başçı presented was somewhat different from that in many of the news reports about the Turkish economy in recent years. For example, despite reports that the value of the Turkish lira has been fluctuating significantly during this period, the data cited by Dr. Başçı indicated that the lira has actually been fluctuating less than the average for the currencies of developing countries. Similarly, the situation regarding inflation is better than generally reported, having dropped from 25% to single digit figures since 2003.

Following the presentation, Dr. Başçı took questions from the audience, sharing his thoughts on a wide range of subjects including the Eurozone crisis, the importance of the 2001 reforms in Turkey and the question of tackling deficits.

The event was organized by the Department of Economics and the Bilkent Economics Research Community (BERC). Most of the audience members were students eager to listen to what the governor of the Central Bank had to say about Turkey's economy. This seminar was the first of the Turkish Economy Seminar Series for the 2011-12 academic year, a seminar series organized regularly by the Department of Economics.

Based on reporting by Mehmet Kutluay (ECON/IV)