A hiatus ends: Istanbul Notes returns

It is two years since I have posted with any regularity on this blog and 18 months since I have lived in Istanbul, a city that still fills me with joy and exasperation in more or less equal measure. Distance made it surprisingly easy—necessary perhaps—to detach from

Turkish monetary policy: playing catch-up with reality

And so the inevitable has come to pass. Turkey’s central bank has departed from its controversial commitment to a loose policy stance in the face of growing signs of overheating and vulnerability in the economy. The bank signalled yesterday that a phase of marked monetary tightening has now begun.

Turkey’s economy: will GDP growth hit a wall?

Earlier this month the German magazine Der Spiegel published a brace of articles about Turkey and accompanied them with a graphic comparing Turkey’s economy and those of a number of EU member states. A cursory glance at this graphic, which I’ve reproduced below, suggests clearly that