Municipal officials carry out disinfection works as a precaution against the coronavirus (COVID-19) at historical mosques and churches in Mardin, Turkey on March 13, 2020.
Halil Ibrahim Sincar | Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Turkey is on shaky ground and its currency depreciating as controversial monetary moves and fast-rising coronavirus cases threaten to plunge an already fragile economy into much more danger.
The country of 82 million is one of the few in Europe that hasn’t implemented a mandatory nationwide lockdown, something its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has so far avoided in hopes of shielding the economy. But after nearly two years of a weakening currency, high debt, dwindling foreign reserves and growing unemployment, Turkey is in a particularly bad place to weather a pandemic, experts say.
“There will be hard times ahead, because Turkey was already at a macroeconomically vulnerable position before the coronavirus hit,” Can Selcuki, managing director of Istanbul…
