What Erdogan’s Unusual Economic Ideas Mean for Turkey

Sign up for our Middle East newsletter and follow us @middleeast for news on the region.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not the only politician who doesn’t like it when the country’s banks charge people relatively heavily to borrow money. What sets him apart is his unorthodox belief in low interest rates and determination to wrest control of monetary policy from central bankers. The result: A succession of benchmark rate cuts that has fueled runaway inflation and precipitated a collapse in the currency.