Middle Income Trap in the World, Reasons for Turkey's Being Caught in the Middle Income Trap and Recommendations for Exit

Abstract

The Turkish economy, which is at the middle-income level, rose to the lower-middle income group in 1955 and was in this group for 50 years. The Turkish economy, which has developed in many ways over the years, a break occurred in 2005 and when it was analyzed in terms of per capita income, it was seen that it rose to the upper middle-income level. Especially after this increase, it has been a matter of debate whether Turkey can reach the per capita income level of high-income countries. When examined over the years, the slowdown in the growth performance of the Turkish economy after 2012, depending on the developments in the world economy, caused the problems in the direction of the middle-income trap to be among the current issues. Therefore, it is of great importance for the Turkish economy how achieved this success the countries that rose to the high-income group without being caught in the middle-income trap and the countries that rose from the upper-middle-income group to the high-income group. In this context, whether the Turkish economy is at risk of middle-income trap will be examined in the light of some social and economic data and some strategies will be explained to avoid to avoid middle income trap risk will be explained.