Turkey's economy and regional income distribution.

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter provides the macroeconomic context within which other chapters analyse agrifood issues and the consequences of Turkey's accession to the EU. After a brief overview of the economy in Section 2.2, Section 2.3 gives information on economic growth, inflation, employment, exchange rates, trade and the balance of payments on current account. The Turkish economy has gone through a period of instability and high inflation, which makes it difficult to measure the underlying growth trend. The growth of Turkey's economy will, however, strongly influence its future position relative to the European Union, and will, together with the exchange rate at and after accession, determine the size of budgetary flows. Section 2.4 gives a brief discussion of this issue. Section 2.5 analyses inter-household and regional income distribution in some detail, since large regional differences in income in an acceding country have implications for targeting EU structural and rural policy.