Monday, September 21, 2009

Weekly Hurriyet Column: Happy Ramadan/Eid

As the newspaper did not come out today (due to the Ramadan/Eid holiday, a Turkish journalism tradition that used to be observed by all the papers until recently), there will not be a column for this week.

Next week's column will be devoted to the fiscal part of the Medium-Term Economic Program (MTEP), especially the much-talked-about fiscal rule.

1 comment:

Mary Stokes said...

Regarding a fiscal rule in Turkey, I think it's interesting to look at what is happening in Poland right now where legal safeguards kick in when public debt-to-GDP breaches a certain level.

For me, Poland's example highlights that having a fiscal rule is not a panacea for solving the problem of fiscal deterioration. While there are many positives to the legal safeguards in Poland (eg increased investor confidence, less maneuver room for a spend-happy government), it appears to me that having the fiscal rule has also led to a number of smoke and mirrors tricks to get public finances into line.

Plus, Poland will need to tighten fiscally at a time when unemployment is still rising.

So I personally will reserve judgment on the fiscal rule until we learn more....the devil's in the details, as they say. I look forward to reading your coming article!