Erdoganomics is spreading across the world

Turkey’s economy does not obviously inspire emulation. Over the past five years it has been battered by soaring annual inflation, which hit 86% in October. The central bank is fresh out of foreign reserves, having spent most of them propping up the lira, also to little avail: last month the currency plummeted to an all-time low against the dollar. To make matters worse, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s president, is about to make good on some expensive promises following an unexpected election victory in May. The bill will probably plunge the government, which had been reasonably fiscally sensible until now, deep into the red.This chaos reflects the upside-down monetary policy pursued by Mr Erdogan. He insists that lowering interest rates is the key to fighting inflation, rather than tightening the screws, which is the solution favoured by generations of orthodox economists. To explain how this could be the case, Turkish officials invoke names ranging from Irving Fisher (an economist, and the finance ministry’s preferred guru) to God (Mr Erdogan’s policymaker of choice).