Turkey facts of the day

Buoyed by imports from China and exports to Russia, Turkey’s economy grew by 5.3% in 2022, after expanding 11.4% in 2021. Only two years ago, the country’s currency was melting down and government bond yields spiked to 24%.

Now its stock market is the world’s top performer with a year-on-year gain of 70% while the Turkish lira has stabilized.

This is the most remarkable turnaround in the checkered history of emerging markets, and what makes it all the more remarkable is that domestic economic policy had little to do with it. Turkey’s wily president Recep Tayyip Erdogan traded political chips with China, Russia, the Gulf States, Israel and Europe to position Turkey in the middle of a flood tide of trade flows created by American sanctions on Russia.

Here is the full story, via Alex X.