LONDON
O'Neill, who coined the BRIC acronym in 2001, that refers to the countries Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development, answered the question of AA correspondent at his house in London.
Saying that he was expecting Turkish economy to grow by 5 percent in 2013, O'Neill added that the economic growth prediction of the Turkish government was correct.
He said Turkey coped well with the economic challenges it faced especially in the last two years and because of that there wasn't even the possibility of a crisis in Turkey.
O'Neill stated Turkey's resilience to economic crisis and shocks was increased in the recent years.
Regarding international rating agency Fitch's upgrading Turkey's credit rating in November, O'Neill said the agencies were quite slow to follow Turkey's growth. He said it was possible that other agencies would increase Turkey's rating.
-Three elements that make Turkey "interesting"-
He said there were three elements making Turkey "interesting"; being located between the East and the West, having a young population and being a role model for the countries in its region.
O'Neill said Turkey's demography was better than any European country and added he agreed with British government that Turkey should be a full EU member due to that fact.
Reminding that EU faced many structural problems, the renowned economist said "Maybe Turkey would not need EU after all. If the European leaders would not solve the problems in two years, Eurozone might not survive as of 2022". He added that BRIC countries changed the global trade a lot and in 2020, some of the EU members might not want to stay in the Eurozone.
He said Turkey was getting more and more important, and EU should embrace Turkey.
On the acronym MIST, standing for Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey, O'Neill said although he wrote a report on the importance of those countries he said he wasn't the one who coined the acronym.
Born in Manchester, 55 year old Jim O'Neill started his career at Bank of America. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1997 and he was appointed the head of global economics research in 2001. In 2010 he was named Chairman of Goldman Sachs' Division of Asset Management and in 2011 he was included in the 50 Most Influential ranking of a finance magazine.
Reporting by Asli Aral
