Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2018 August 13

= August 13 =

Turkey's public debt
List of countries by public debt - It looks like Turkey has relatively low government indebtedness at 30% of GDP. Shouldn't that give the government room to borrow to continue to support economic growth and also plug in the hole created by its high current account deficit? Based on the continuous free fall in the currency, it looks like options for countering the trend are exhausted. Muzzleflash (talk) 13:34, 13 August 2018 (UTC)


 * Your assumption is that they are trying achieve economic growth. Growth has receded in many sectors, such as education and research. In financial sectors, it has stagnated. In construction, it has grown for the most part. So, following the current trend, Turkey would be borrowing foreign currency to build yet another skyscraper. Politically, the country is turning anti-"west" to the point that their application to the EU is currently being ignored. So, borrowing from the Americas or Europe isn't a real strategy. They would have to turn to Asia. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 15:03, 13 August 2018 (UTC)
 * But isn't part of the reason they are turning anti-west because their EU application has been basically ignored for many years?--Khajidha (talk) 12:38, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Chicken or egg? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:52, 19 August 2018 (UTC)
 * It hasn't been ignored. It has been reviewed yearly with complaints of human rights abuses, primarily against the Kurdish people of Turkey. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 12:45, 21 August 2018 (UTC)
 * blog link This blog post gives a good analysis of other borrowing options that Turkey has and believes that Turkey is in a position to avoid economic ruin from the crisis. Infotainment14 (talk) 18:08, 13 August 2018 (UTC)

There seems to be a very basic misconception about sovereign debt. First, very, very few loans are government-to-government. (IMF-type multilateral lending is an entirely different matter.) The vast majority are bonds sold on the market. Whether that bond is denominated in Turkish Lira, uros, dollars, yen or renminbi is quite important, both to the buyer and to the seller. However, the bonds are normally sold to private parties, including funds, individuals and financial institutions. DOR (HK) (talk) 11:20, 20 August 2018 (UTC)