Turkey’s economy is in trouble as experts worry it could become a new coronavirus hotspot

Turkey is on shaky ground and its currency depreciating as controversial monetary moves and fast-rising coronavirus cases threaten to plunge an already fragile economy into much more danger.

The country of 82 million is one of the few in Europe that hasn’t implemented a mandatory nationwide lockdown, something its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has so far avoided in hopes of shielding the economy. But after nearly two years of a weakening currency, high debt, dwindling foreign reserves and growing unemployment, Turkey is in a particularly bad place to weather a pandemic, experts say.

“There will be hard times ahead, because Turkey was already at a macroeconomically vulnerable position before the coronavirus hit,” Can Selcuki, managing director of Istanbul Economics Research, told CNBC on Monday, following a temporary 48-hour lockdown of Istanbul and 30 other cities. While self-isolation is currently voluntary in Turkey, he said, most non-essential businesses had closed and tourism had evaporated.

“Unemployment in January was already 14% and it will probably increase greatly due to the foreclosures because of the coronavirus,” he said. Turkey began registering more than 3,000 new coronavirus cases per day after April 4 and has reported more than 4,000 per day since April 8, a sudden surge that’s alarmed health experts. The country confirmed its first case on March 11 after insisting it had no cases for more than two months as the virus spread in its neighboring countries.

Cases are now at more than 65,000 — the ninth-highest globally, after Iran — with at least 1,400 deaths. Erdogan claims his government has dealt with the virus better than any other country. But concerned calls from medical associations in Turkey demanding government transparency and support in the fight against coronavirus have grown louder as the spike in cases draws warnings it could become the next Italy or Spain.

Turkey’s economy is in trouble as experts worry it could become a new coronavirus hotspot, CNBC, Apr 15