Turkey is on the verge of complete bankruptcy – such an assessment of the situation was voiced by the ex-minister of economy of the republic, chairman of the Turkish opposition party DEVA Ali Babacan. For the tourism industry, which is a significant sector of the economy earning foreign currency, this is fraught with massive power outages in hotels for non-payment, exorbitant prices for accommodation due to greatly increased costs, and as a result, the loss of tourist flow.
“Today I want to say that we are on the verge of bankruptcy as a country and I call on the government to immediately fulfill its responsibilities. I'm worried because our country's risk of default, namely the risk of bankruptcy, has reached an unprecedented level. We are faced with a question of economic and financial survival. Turkey's credit rating has fallen to the worst level in history,” Ahval newspaper quoted Mr. Babacan as speaking at a meeting of his party. The publication recalls that such an assessment is made by an expert who has held high positions – including the Minister of Economy, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister under the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“What is default for Turkey, what is bankruptcy? This means that the Republic of Turkey cannot pay for the natural gas and oil it imports. Bankruptcy means that basic needs such as gas and diesel cannot be met even with money. You have money, you can't get more than half a tank of gas, or you're waiting in line for 3 hours. This is bankruptcy,” he said.
For the Turkish tourism industry, however, the following signal sounds more alarming. “Bankruptcy means widespread and prolonged power outages across the country. Imagine that the electricity is out for six hours, 10 hours a day. That's the danger. Bankruptcy means complete economic and financial collapse. Bankruptcy means chaos,” the expert intimidated. He also called on President Erdogan to “immediately change the management of the country's economy and finances on the basis of reason and science”, as well as appoint qualified personnel to the Central Bank and “not interfere” in its work.
Recall that alarming messages from Turkish hotels began to arrive in early February this year. Hotel owners predicted “abnormal price increases”, up to 100%, due to the financial and energy crisis in the country. “Until recently, the share of energy in the cost items of a hotel was 4-8%, now it reaches almost 100%, that is, all our income goes to pay. And we don't yet know how electricity and food prices will increase in the winter,” said another hotel expert, Bülent Züser, Vice President of the Aegean Tourism and Accommodation Association (ETIK). According to him, these costs have to be factored into prices – and even at the stage of early booking, prices have already increased by 50%. Read the details in the material TURPROM The cost of holidays in Turkey will rise in price by 100%: the terms and reasons are named.
Russian citizens living in Turkey also recorded a rise in prices, and also back in February, before the start of the Ukrainian and global crisis. From their words, the price of gasoline and food grew by leaps and bounds. “Tonight the price of gasoline was raised again to about 15.6 lira (86 rubles). Diesel was raised to the same level last night… For comparison, a year ago a liter of gasoline cost 7.3 lira (41 rubles), and even in November last year it cost another 8.48 (47 rubles), i.е. the main increase is taking place right now. The fall of the lira, the rise in the cost of oil… all this is reflected in people – people are already desperately joking that they will soon switch to horses, ”said Russian expats (for details, follow this link).
For those who value a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “New opportunities for agritourism: organic farms in Uglich begin to receive guests.”