IFM Correspondent

August 3, 2016: The bid to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proved very costly for Turkey. According to Bulent Tufenkci, customs and trade minister, the attempt came at of cost of $100 billion (300 billion liras) to the economy.

“When we consider all those warplanes, helicopters, weapons, bombs and buildings, the cost is 300 billion liras minimum, according to our calculations,” the minister told mediapersons. He added that the figure is likely to rise after more detailed calculations are made.

Tufenkci said the full picture should be seen in a medium-term context even if some investors stayed away in the short-term, adding that the rebels had made Turkey look like a Third World country.

“They (investors) are not coming after the images revealed tanks were deployed on the streets, parliament was bombed,” Tufenkci said, pointing out that some foreign orders had been cancelled in the wake of the coup.

According to the minister, Turkey managed to control the situation. “If such a coup took place in another country, markets would probably be closed for at least a week,” he said, emphasising that all the Turkish banks, commodity markets and commerce centres had opened as usual after the weekend.

Standard and Poor’s had cut Turkey’s credit rating one level to BB and assigned a negative outlook.

Cemil Ertem, senior economic adviser to the president, said that he does not expect a negative evaluation on the economy from US-based credit rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch as, given the economy’s strong macroeconomic indicators, negative assessments would cause them to lose credibility.

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