Domestic financing of economic development in Turkey: with special reference to the first five-year development plan, 1963-1967

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to try to provide a critical analysis of the problem of domestic financing of the Turkish First Five-Year Development Plan, 1963-1967. More precisely, we shall be concerned with the following question: how the savings/income ratio in the Turkish economy could be raised from its pre-Plan level to that envisaged by the Plan as an investment/income ratio necessary for the attainment of the Plan's targets. The study begins with a detailed introduction of the social and economic framework of Turkey in Chapter 1, in which the emphasis is put on the factors which are likely to be the most effective determinants of the saving capacity of the economy. This is followed by a review of the Plan's objectives in Chapter 2, which reveals the size of the Plan. Whether the financing of a plan of that size is within the capability of the Turkish economy is examined in Chapter 3 under the heading "Strategy for Financing of the Plan". However, even if the realization of the required finance is deemed to be within the means of the economy, it will certainly require some efforts by the public to raise the savings/income ratio above its pre-Plan level. In this connection, the performance of the private sector and the obstacles to a higher propensity to save in the private sector are analysed in Chapter 4. We are thus left with the major issue of the Public Sector's savings. Among the various kinds of public revenue, taxation is singled out due to its relative importance and studied in detail in Chapter 5. Then follows in Chapter 6 a sketch of non-tax public revenues and public current expenditures and a study of the financing of the deficit of the capital account of the Public Sector. The dissertation is completed with a chapter summarizing the conclusions of the individual chapters.