Can Turkey’s economic czar stick to belt-tightening after election loss?, Al Monitor, April 13,2024

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and economy czar Mehmet Simsek vowed earlier this month to continue efforts to tackle sticky inflation despite the risk of stoking popular ire with Ankara’s economic management, a key factor behind the big disappointment — or rather debacle, according to many — that the ruling party suffered in last month’s local polls against the country’s main opposition party.

Simsek was named treasury and finance minister after Erdogan’s reelection in May 2023, and was tasked with fixing the economic woes that Erdogan’s unorthodox low-rate policy had spawned, chief among them runaway inflation. But with the March 31 local polls on the calendar at that time, monetary tightening policies to rein in prices remained constricted and election-oriented populist moves continued, leading consumer inflation to hit 68.5% last month.

https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/04/can-turkeys-economic-czar-stick-belt-tightening-after-election-loss