Turkey: Sustaining the unsustainable

Despite persistently high inflation and international financial turmoil, the Turkish economy continues to defy gravity. The country's banks lend to the treasury in lira at high interest rates. As a result, they can offer attractive interest rates on foreign currency deposits too. Armed with a fictitious $50,000, Metin Munir finds out just how good these rates can be and explores the role played by the banks in propping up Turkey's "unsustainable" economy. By Metin Munir.