The Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) is yet to release income distribution figures for 2019, but the Global Wealth Report by the financial giant Credit Suisse puts Turkey among the countries that saw major losses in wealth this year. The erosion owes mainly to the Turkish lira’s slump against the dollar, which was the trigger of Turkey's crisis itself, the decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) and the decline in the price of real estate, which forms the backbone of wealth. According to the report, the richest 1% in Turkey saw their share of total wealth fall from 54% in 2018 to 42.5%.
Income and wealth distribution data are helpful in understanding social and political conditions in a country, and changes in distribution over years provide important clues about the background of political changes in individual countries and internationally.
