AKP accused of cooking books before elections

Zulfikar Dogan

People stroll at a shopping mall in Istanbul October 10, 2011. In a country where per capita incomes are up 40 percent since 2001, consumer's hunger for goods and services is explosive. The $735 billion economy grew 8.8 percent in the second quarter of 2011, faster than India?s and more than four times the pace of the euro zone. Loans, corporate profits and sales of cars and electronics are still rising at double-digit clips. Picture taken October 10, 2011. To match Analysis TURKEY-STOCKS/ REUTERS/Murad Se — People stroll at a shopping mall in Istanbul, Oct. 10, 2011. — REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Recently released financial data is rekindling accusations that the government fudges numbers to make itself look good.

Government critics are pointing to apparent discrepancies between the 2014 Income and Living Conditions Research report issued last month by the Statistical Agency of Turkey (TUIK) and economic data used in the Ministry of Development's 2016-18 Medium-Term Program.

TUIK said income distribution in the country has improved over the last year. The share of the poorest 20% segment of Turkey's total income rose 0.1 point to 6.2% and the share of the richest 20% declined 0.7 point to 45.9%.

But the figures released by the Ministry of Families and Social Policy say the number of poor Turks, which was 23.7 million in 2012, rose to 30.5 million in 2014. The number of households needing assistance has reached 8 million, up from 6.77 million.

AKP accused of cooking books before elections

Critics are claiming Turkey's ruling party has manipulated financial figures to paint a rosy economic picture ahead of the Nov. 1 snap elections.

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