Author: Al Jazeera English
3425View
25m 1sLenght
11Rating

Sweeping to power in an unexpected landslide victory, elections in Turkey have handed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party another four years at the helm and a parliamentary majority. Ending five months of political deadlock, Sunday's electoral victory marked a turnaround for the country and ushered a return to single-party rule. Drawing more than 4 million more votes than it did in June's elections, the poll handed Erdogan a fresh mandate to lead Turkey and address one of the country's biggest challenges - the economy. Turkey's currency, the lira, has tumbled more than 25 percent against the euro and dollar this year, and has become one of the worst performing emerging market currencies in the world. The country's current account deficit has also widened to $45bn, with Turkey - essentially - spending much more than it earns. According to the IMF and World Bank, the once booming economy that grew 9.2 percent in 2010 is now forecast to grow by just 3 percent this year, and 2.9 percent in 2016. And the vital tourism and export sectors have also shrunk. Tourism revenue was down in the first quarter of this year and the export goal of $173bn for 2015 will likely not be met. So, can the government turn around an economy struggling with rising inflation, slowing growth and a shrinking tourism sector? Murat Yulek, a professor at Istanbul Commerce University and former IMF economist joins Counting the Cost to discuss the AK party's economic policies. Also on this episode: Counting the cost of Indonesia's forest fires. Luca Tacconi, the director of the Asia Pacific Network for Environmental Governance, joins the programme to discuss the economic impact of the crisis. - Subscribe to our channel: http://bit.ly/AJSubscribe - Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish - Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera - Check out our website: http://www.aljazeera.com/