Using PPP GDP per capita figures, I normalized the income level of countries with respect to Turkey (i.e. by setting Turkey's income per capita as one). In the first figure, we compare the economic development of Turkey with three of her peers in the early 1900s: Greece, Portugal and Spain.
In 1913, all three were richer: Spain by 120%, Greece by 70% and Portugal by 45%. On the average, income per capita in these countries were 78 percent higher than that of Turkey.
- Fast-forwarding to 1950, the difference is almost the same: 75%.
- In the 50s, Turkey was able to get closer a little bit.
- But in the 60s and 70s, Turkey was not able to keep pace with the three and fell behind.
- In 1980, they were almost 3 times richer.
- In the 80s, the gap shrunk again - to 2.79.
- Following the "lost decade" of 90s (which can be characterized by an ever-lasting political and economic uncertainty in Turkey), Greece, Portugal, and Spain are 2.79 times richer.
Figure 1: Income per capita (PPP) - Turkey vs. Greece, Spain, and Portugal
The other diagrams compare Turkey with Europe, South America, Asia and Pacific.
Figure 2: Income per capita (PPP) - Turkey vs. Europe
Figure 3: Income per capita (PPP) - Turkey vs. South America
Figure 4: Income per capita (PPP) - Turkey vs. Asia
Figure 5: Income per capita (PPP) - Turkey vs. Pacific
In the last graph, we compare income per capita of Turkey with the 38 countries. It seems that we are not there yet...
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Data Set:
1. Angus Maddison (‘Monitoring the World Economy 1820-1992’, OECD 1995).
2. Penn World Table
3. World Economic Outlook Database, April 2007
