Three years after undergoing its worst recession since World War II, Turkey has pulled back from the brink of economic disaster. Its recovery has been remarkable, and almost all trace of the crisis has been eliminated.
Radical reforms carried out by the conservative government of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have reduced the role of the state in the economy and aligned Turkey’s political system with that of the EU. The country’s massive privatisation programme is moving full steam ahead. State monopolies in fixed line phone and data transmissions, natural gas importation, sales and distribution and electricity distribution have been lifted – representing a clean break from Turkey’s traditional past of state-dominated industries and services.
