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Official data lays bare deepening poverty in Turkey

With economic disparities worsening amid the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey’s poverty rate has increased 0.6 points to 21.9% of the population.
People wearing protective masks shop at a local market, amid the coronavirus pandemic,  Ankara, Turkey, Feb. 22, 2021.
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At least 700,000 more people plunged into poverty and the income gap widened in Turkey last year as the coronavirus pandemic aggravated the economic turmoil plaguing the country since 2018, official data show. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may brag of continued economic growth despite the pandemic, but the Turkish Statistical Institute’s annual survey on income and living conditions, released June 15, lays bare how economic inequality and poverty deepened in the country last year. 

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