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Monday, 4 February, 2002, 14:18 GMT
Turkey in crisis: How do you rebuild a country?
Kemal Dervis, the economy minister of Turkey, answered your questions in a live forum from the World Economic Forum in New York.



Economic crises in Turkey and Argentina during the past year have led to political unrest and hurt the poor. Meanwhile, war in Afghanistan has devastated the local economy and left the population struggling to survive.

In Argentina, the new government led by President Eduardo Duhalde is still struggling to win back the confidence of his people after imposing draconian limits on bank withdrawals and removing a peg between the local peso and the US dollar.

Meanwhile Afghanistan's interim government is raising money from international donors to rebuild its damaged country from scratch.

Turkey has also had is own fair share of economic problems after the government was forced to devalue its currency last February.

A political row between the country's leaders sparked a huge loss of investor confidence and caused prices to spiral and several of Turkey's banks to collapse under their debts.

How can these countries avoid such economic crises? What should the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund do to prevent this happening? Are IMF demands on emerging economies too stringent? Does globalisation help or hinder progress? And what can be done to protect the poor during tough times?

See also:

01 Feb 02 | Business
Turkey woos IMF with reforms
31 Dec 01 | Business
Turkey targets new IMF loan
13 Dec 01 | Business
Turkey passes tight 2002 budget
29 Nov 01 | Business
Turkey wins $3bn more from IMF
31 Aug 01 | Business
Turkey's economy shrinks

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