ANKARA: Turkey’s economy may face a challenging period in the event of an increase in oil prices, the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, has said, while urging officials to take measures on their energy policies.
Turkey is among the countries which have secured some “positive effects” over the drop in oil prices but measures should be taken considering that “prices will not remain constant,” Birol, who is also a Turkish economist and energy expert told, Doğan News Agency (DHA) in an interview on the sidelines of the seventh International Energy and Climate Forum organized by Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC).
Birol listed countries in three categories, depending on how they were affected by the decrease in oil prices. Birol described the economies of Saudi Arabia, Russia and United Arab Emirates, which are mostly dependent on oil revenues, as countries which were “negatively affected” by the drop in prices, as their economies had “weakened” after the developments. He added that Nigeria, Azerbaijan, Venezuela and some other African countries had suffered “the most significant damage,” with many of their economies now going bankrupt.
