For many years, high public debt and macroeconomic mismanagement forced Turkey to pay a huge interest-rate premium in international financial markets – money that might have otherwise been invested in schools. However, since assuming office in 2003, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has reduced the fiscal deficit as a share of GDP by nearly ten percentage points, from 10.8% in 2002 to 1% in 2013, and cut the public debt/GDP ratio from 74% in 2002 to 36.3% in 2013.
多年来，公债高企和宏观经济管理失当迫使土耳其需要在国际金融市场上支付高昂的利率溢价——这笔钱本可以投资于学校。但是，自2003年执政以来，总理埃尔多安的政府将财政赤字占GDP的比重缩减了近十个百分点，从2002年的10.8%降至2013年的1%，并将公债/GDP比率从2002年的74%降至2013年的36.3%。结果，同期政府利息支出占税收收入之比从85.7%降至15.3%。