Turkey and the IMF: Macroeconomic Policy, Patterns of Growth and Persistent Fragilities Author : By Independent Social Scientists' Alliance of Turkey

Published by : Third World Network (TWN)

ISBN: 983-2729-54-8

About the Book

The Independent Social Scientists’ Alliance was formed by a group of academicians and researchers in November 2000. The main aim of the Alliance is to provide academic resistance to counter the neo-liberal assault on Turkey’s economic and political independence and social welfare.

As imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the international financial institutions, the conditionalities of neo-liberal globalization aim at redesigning Turkey’s role in the international division of labour, with the explicit objective of turning its national economy into a free-market bonanza of cheap imports, a reserve army of cheap labour, and an informalised, dualistic industry with a backward technology base.

It is the main objective of the Alliance to provide research, training and scientific data to support the labouring masses in their struggle against the hegemony of capital and neo-liberal imperialism. This book is one of the major contributions of the Alliance towards that goal.

Contents

Chapter

NOTE

FOREWORD by Ajit Singh

FOREWORD by Lance Taylor

INTRODUCTION

TURKEY IN THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR

• World Division of Labour and Turkey
• Turkey in Pre-accession Negotiations with the EU

THE TURKISH ECONOMY UNDER THE AKP GOVERNMENT: MACROECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND FRAGILITIES

• General Observations
• Economic Data for 2004
• Sources of Growth
• Fixed Capital Investments
• Jobless Growth
• Trends in Wage-Productivity Relationship
• Turkey Keeps Offering High Arbitrage Returns to International Financial Markets
• Current Account Deficit Gives Alarming Signs
• Growth Process Made Dependent on International Finance Capital
• Autonomy of the Central Bank and Inflation Targeting
• Dynamics of Public Debt
• Consolidated Budget 2004

THE TRUE CHARACTER OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT PROGRAMMES

• Reform in Public Administration
• Programme for Transformation in the Health Sector
• 2004: Year of New Projects in the Health Sector
• Public Health Problems Turkey is Facing as This Transformation is Imposed

CONCLUSION: ON THE NATURE OF THE IMF PROGRAMME

ANNEX

• Economic Developments in the US, the Dominant Power in World Capitalism

POSTSCRIPT

• The Turkish Macroeconomy in 2005

END NOTES