Ankara is threatened with a slap in the face by the Financial Action Task Force (FAFT), as according to information first published by Financial Times, is preparing today to put Turkey on the "gray list" of countries that have failed to suppress black money laundering and terrorist group financing.
The decision is extremely important, given that the FATF is an international organization set up in 1989, at the initiative of the G7, precisely to adopt standards and rules for the fight against black money and terrorist funds, in order to protect its integrity. international financial system.
A negative rating and downgrade by the FATF will further "squeeze" the Turkish economy by limiting its ability to attract significant foreign investment at a time when the flow of foreign investment to the neighbor has already declined to its lowest point in twenty years.
It is certain that it will deal a new blow to the already weakening Turkish pound, which has lost about 20% since the beginning of the year against the US dollar, triggering a domino of appreciations that have significantly worsened the quality of life of the population, intensifying the popular discomfort against the government and against Erdogan personally.
Together with Syria and Yemen
According to the information, the suggestion of the officials, which will be discussed at today's meeting of the 39 members of the Group, at the headquarters of the organization, in Paris, is negative for Turkey and proposes that the country be placed under special supervision by the International Co- Operation Review Group, which means that its transactions will go under the microscope. The FATF blacklist already includes 22 countries, including Albania, Morocco, Syria, South Sudan and Yemen.
In addition, it is considered certain that the FATF decision will increase the pressure on the EU. also add Turkey to its own blacklist of countries suspected of money laundering.
The IMF, in a report last May, estimated that the inclusion of a country in the gray list of the FATF, has a huge negative impact on the flow of capital and foreign direct investment, causing losses that can reach up to 3% of GDP. For Turkey, such a percentage translates into a loss of 23 billion dollars!
Even if the losses do not reach these levels, they will certainly not be negligible, at a time when the Turkish economy is not resilient to new shocks. According to official data from the Turkish Central Bank, total foreign investment at the beginning of August (in shares and bonds) was just $ 30,6 billion. For the whole of last year, foreign direct investment amounted to $ 5,7 billion, which is not even half of the at least $ 19 billion that Turkey had attracted at the peak of its investment boom in 2007.
He was warned!
It should be noted that the FATF decision will not put Ankara to sleep, as the international organization has warned Turkey that it is in its sights, as early as December 2019. However, it seems that the Turkish government did not take the This warning, despite the fact that she claims that the measures she took last year covered the remarks of the Group.
Ankara is referring to the controversial NGO law, the bill on "Prevention of Financing the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction", which was ratified by the Turkish Parliament last December. Critics of Erdogan, opposition parties, and activists inside and outside Turkey argued then (and now) that under the guise of fighting terrorist financing, the authorities gained the right to disrupt and control the activities of NGOs in the country. .
Obviously, Turkey's emerging ranking in the FATF gray list means that the Group also shares, if nothing else, the view that this legislation did not meet Ankara's obligations in relation to the effective fight against money laundering.
in.gr
