- 7-Eleven owner confirms new takeover offer from Couche-Tard
- A US climate scientist sees hurricane Helene's devastation firsthand
- Can carbon credits help close coal plants?
- Boeing suspends negotiations with striking workers
- 7-Eleven owner's shares spike on report of new buyout offer
- Your 'local everything': what 7-Eleven buyout battle means for Japan
- AI-aided research, new materials eyed for Nobel Chemistry Prize
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free soon after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China says to take anti-dumping measures against EU brandy imports
- China stocks rally fizzles on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- China stocks rally peters out on stimulus worries amid Asia retreat
- Taiwan's Foxconn says building world's largest 'superchip' plant
- Nobel literature jury may go for non-Western writer
- From Bolivia to Indonesia, deforestation continues apace
- China holds off on fresh stimulus but 'confident' will hit growth target
- German suspect in 'Maddie' case faces verdict in sex crimes trial
- Top economic official 'confident' China will hit 2024 growth target
- COP29 fight looms over climate funds for developing world
- Shanghai stocks soar to extend stimulus rally amid Asia-wide drop
- Will Tesla's robotaxi reveal live up to hype?
- 'Invisibility' and quantum computing tipped for physics Nobel
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
Debt spiral engulfs Turkish voters months before polls
The growing pile of debt notices covering the Ankara district mayor's desk hint at the scale of the economic crisis facing Turkish voters months before crucial presidential polls.
The warnings and court summonses end up being forwarded to Ali Golpinar -- the "muhtar" of one of the Turkish capital's working-class suburbs -- when they cannot be delivered to the debtor's stated address.
Golpinar says the number of them he gets daily has doubled to about 40 in the past two years.
That generally reflects what has happened to Turkey's consumer prices over the same span. The official inflation rate hit 85 percent in the past year alone.
"And these are only the undelivered letters," Golpinar said from behind his messy desk.
"Imagine how many there are in all. People can no longer pay their debts."
Turkish media say the total number of debt recovery cases rose by about 1.5 million in a year and exceeded 24 million at the height of the crisis in August.
The main banking regulator says the value of unpaid individual loans in the nation of 85 million people rose from 17 billion to 29 billion liras ($1.6 billion) between March and September.
- Friendly grocers -
Turkey's most recent economic problems started when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- a lifelong foe of high interest rates -- pushed the central bank to start fighting persistent inflation by lowering borrowing costs in September 2021.
The policy contradicted conventional economics and turned Turkey into a no-go zone for foreign investors.
A resulting currency crisis wiped out savings and forced Erdogan to launch an expensive social support system that tried to preserve living standards -- and his own ratings before elections due by June.
His government has trippled the minum wage in the past year and raised state salaries and pensions.
But soaring rents -- up 163 percent in the past year in Ankara -- and household expenses have forced many to revive the ancient tradition of buying on credit at friendly neighbourhood shops.
"Asking for a bank loan is risky, but the local grocer knows you," Golpinar said. "He will not refuse you."
The system operates entirely on trust and involves no interest payments or signed papers.
"More and more customers are asking to buy on credit," grocer Yuksel Kurt agreed.
Kurt writes down all the money he is owed in a worn notebook that he keeps next to his cash register.
The grocer said he ends up refusing some people "because I know they will never pay it back. If a debt hasn't been paid back after six month, we know we have to write it off."
- Debt dilemma -
Economist Erinc Yeldan said Turkey was experiencing fallout from a years-long policy that encouraged cheap lending to achieve rapid rates of economic growth.
Turkey's growth continued throughout the coronavirus pandemic and reached 11 percent of gross domestic product in 2021 -- the highest rate among the Group of 20 major economies.
Erdogan cites these figures while promoting a "new economic model" built on domestic production and exports.
"Turkey has voluntarily increased its foreign and domestic debt," Yeldan said.
The main opposition CHP party's anti-poverty campaigner Hacer Foggo said this policy allowed people without fixed incomes to obtain cheap loans.
These same people "are facing the dilemma of choosing between paying their rent, taking their child to the doctor or repaying their loans," she said.
City governments run by the opposition -- including Ankara and Istanbul -- have set up websites that take donations to help the needy pay their utility bills.
Erdogan's government is also announcing a steady stream of populist measures entering the election campaign.
One of the latest involves pushing creditors to cancel debts of less than 2,000 liras ($105).
These announcements have helped prop up Erdogan's sagging numbers as he tries to extend his rule into a third decade in what promises to be a tight vote.
But Golpinar said he is yet to hear of anyone who has filled out all the paperwork needed to get a debt writeoff.
"I don't know of a single person who has benefited from it," the district mayor said.
U.Ndiaye--CPN