Turkey's strategy and budget office puts the cost of reconstruction, economic damage at $104 billion. Some of that amount will probably be financed by the private sector; rest will have to come from public purse. Turkey can still borrow on international markets, but it can only borrow at a high price with foreign investors expecting yields of about 9%.
It will be years until the country recovers from February’s devastating earthquakes—but progress toward that goal will determine whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins another mandate next month. Oft-overlooked data suggest that Africa’s baby boom is slowing, in a “demographic transition” the world has seen before. And remembering Traute Lafrenz, the last leafleter of the “White Rose” Nazi resistance.
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