How Turkey Created a Debt Crisis
Erdogan’s growth model was fueled above all by cheap money. In 2018, it finally ran out of road.
“Everybody has a bankruptcy story,” says Cem Sari, who’s just lived through his own version, in a year that turned into a national trauma.
Turkey’s economy roared into 2018 with growth rates that were the envy of the world—and vulnerabilities that had been building over years. It was like a car that could still reach high speeds, so long as the driver ignored the multiple warning lights flashing on the dashboard. And then it crashed, suffering a classic run on its currency and a brutal credit crunch.