THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE YUGOSLAV AND TURKISH ECONOMIES’ GROWTH IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD (1918-1941)

Abstract

In the interwar period, Turkey and Yugoslavia, despite all their differences, have approximately similar economic performance. Namely, during the 1930s, the two countries recorded very similar levels of the most important indicator of the state of an economy, which implicitly indicates the level of living standards, GDP per capita (at purchasing power parity). Yugoslavia, like Turkey, was a predominantly agrarian country with underdeveloped industry, where the main aggravating factors for more intensive economic development was, in addition to the lack of capital, the insufficiency of skilled labor, and rapid population growth. Despite the significant progress made in industry and mining, both countries have retained the characteristics of industrially underdeveloped or agrarian-extractive economies, with only about 11% of employees in industry and crafts activities. Despite the above-average GDP growth per capita of Turkey of 1.8% in the period 1913-1939, and the average one for Yugoslavia (1.1%), at the end of the observed period they remained at a very low relative level looking at GDP per capita, and consequently among the most underdeveloped countries in Europe.