Turkey welcomes back foreign cash, no questions asked
Scrambling to ease a bruising hard currency crunch, the Turkish government has enacted a wealth amnesty bill that opens the door to the repatriation of shadowy money from abroad.
The Turkish economy is in the grips of serious turmoil as the country heads to early presidential and parliamentary polls next month. The government is hard-pressed to contain the woes, especially the ongoing slump of the Turkish lira and skyrocketing foreign exchange prices. In an apparent sign of desperation, the government last week introduced a controversial incentive for capital repatriation from abroad, which is effectively opening the door to illicit money.
Turkey’s 7.4% economic growth last year relied largely on government incentives that put further strains on the budget. As a result, the country, fraught with a double-digit inflation and a high unemployment rate, also faces a significant public deficit atop a giant current account gap.
