view on espresso.economist.com -- fan qiang -- Dec 13th 2018
Damage control: Turkey’s economy
- Damage control 〔軍〕損壞管理制；緊急管制；災(zāi)害防控；修補(bǔ)損傷
The Turkish lira is at its strongest against the dollar since August, when American sanctions helped sink the currency to record lows.
- lira 里拉（馬耳他、敘利亞、土耳其和意大利貨幣單位，在意大利于 2002 年為歐元所取代）
Inflation, which surged past 25% in annual terms in October, the worst since 2003, eased to under 22% in November.
- Inflation 通貨膨漲
- ease 緩解；減輕；放松；降低
Given this, and possible pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who would like to rekindle growth ahead of local elections in March, the central bank might have been tempted to slash lending rates today.
- rekindle 使重新活躍；使復(fù)蘇
- lending rate 貸款利率；放款利率
- slash 大幅度削減；大大降低
Instead, it held firm, keeping its one-week repo rate at 24%.
- repo rate 附買回利率；回購(gòu)利率；再回購(gòu)利率
Inflation is hardly under control.
Despite the recent recovery, the lira is still down by about 30% in dollar terms since the start of the year.
A rate cut could have triggered another painful run on the currency.
The economy, led by the construction sector, had guzzled cheap credit for years.
- construction sector 建筑業(yè)；結(jié)構(gòu)規(guī)劃優(yōu)勢(shì)
- guzzle 大吃大喝；暴食；豪飲
Turkey’s hangover must endure, but at least the central bank has shown some reassuring independence of late.
或許不久的將來(lái)，那些經(jīng)濟(jì)不景氣（或者嚴(yán)重惡劣）的國(guó)家會(huì)有大的變革吧！
