Economy

Introduction

Turkey has suffered its share of economic woes since the 1970s, when the oil crisis hit hard. The ramifications seriously destabilized Turkish society and saddled the country with a large external debt. President Ozal, an economist, implemented a “structural adjustment program.”This program was intended to create incentives for market-led growth. Since then, Turkey has weathered periodic economic shocks, most recently in 2001, when the exchange rate system collapsed and the economy contracted by 8.5%. This event forced the government to move from fixed to floating exchange rates as part of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) adjustment package. Economic growth is viewed as vital, not only to improve the living standards of the Turkish people, but to enable Turkey to become a member of the European Union (EU) on an equal footing with EU countries.