Mr. Muharrem Yılmaz, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD delivered an opening address at the "Global Economic Prospects" Conference

Koç University – TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum (EAF) and the World Bank organized a seminar titled “Global Economic Prospects: Assuring Growth over the Medium Term” on January 21st, 2013.

The opening speeches of the conference were delivered by Mr. Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for Turkey, Prof. Dr. Barış Tan, Dean of College of Administrative Sciences and Economics at Koç University, and Mr. Muharrem Yılmaz, President of the Board of Directors of TÜSİAD.

In his address Mr. Muharrem Yılmaz shared his opinions on the World Bank’s “Global Economic Prospects (GEP)” report and TÜSİAD’s growth predictions. Mr. Yılmaz noted that in the current uncertain and unstable situation, developing countries such as Turkey need cautious macro policies and strong macroeconomic buffers against crises in basic spheres of policy action. He remarked that rapid and large capital inflows caused by global liquidity may exceed the capacity of developing economies and trigger problems such as overheating economies, asset price bubbles, and current account deficit.

In the conference World Bank’s report titled “Global Economic Prospects: Assuring Growth over the Medium Term” was launched with the presentation of Mr. Hans Timmer, Director of the Development Prospects Group at The World Bank.

The conference also included a panel discussion moderated by Mr. Ege Cansen, columnist at Hürriyet. Mr. Zafer Ali Yavan, General Secretary of TÜSİAD, Prof. Dr. Sumru Altuğ, Director of the Koç University – TÜSİAD Economic Research Forum, and Ms. Marina Wes, Lead Economist for Turkey at the World Bank were the panelists.

According to the World Bank’s “Global Economic Prospects (GEP)” report, More than four years after the global financial crisis hit, the world economy is still fragile and the economic growth in the high-income countries is still weak. The developing countries should on the one hand strengthen their measures against the impact of the financial policy risks originating in the US and the Euro zone, and focus on increasing their economic growth potential, on the other.

For the full text of the report and data sets in the appendix, please visit:
www.worldbank.org/globaloutlook