new record high at 95,735 points. As of 5 January 2018, the Index reached 116,638 points. However, in the course of the 2018 Turkish currency and debt crisis, the index dipped back below 100.000 in May. In early June, the BIST-100 Index dropped to the lowest level in dollar terms since the global financial crisis in 2008. In 2017, the OECD expected Turkey to be one of the fastest growing economies among OECD members during 2015–2025, with an annual average growth rate of 4.9%. In May 2018, Moody's Investors Service lowered its estimate for growth of the Turkish economy in 2018 from 4% to 2.5% & in 2019 from 3.5% to 2%. According to a 2013 Financial Times Special Report on Turkey, Turkish business executives and government officials believed the quickest route to achieving export growth lies outside of traditional western markets. While the European Union used to account for more than half of all Turkey's exports, by 2013 the figure was heading down toward not much more than a third. However, by 2018 the share of exports going to the EU was back above fifty percent. Turkish companies’ foreign direct investment outflow has increased by 10 times over the past 15 years, according to the 2017 Foreign Investment Index. With policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fuelling the construction sector, where many of his business allies are active, Turkey as of May 2018 had around 2 million unsold houses, a backlog worth three times average annual new housing sales. The 2018 Turkish currency and debt crisis ended a period of growth under Erdoğan-led governments since 2003, built largely on a construction boom fueled by easy credit and government spending. In 2018, Turkey went through a currency and debt crisis, characterised by the Turkish lira (TRY) plunging in value, high inflation, rising borrowing costs, and correspondingly rising loan defaults. The crisis was caused by the Turkish economy's excessive current account deficit and foreign-currency debt, in combination with the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) increasing authoritarianism and President Erdoğan's unorthodox ideas about interest rate policy. On 10 August 2018, Turkish currency lira nosedived following Donald Trump's tweet about doubling tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum that day. The currency weakened 17% that day and has lost nearly 40% of its value against the dollar till that time. The crash of the lira has sent ripples through global markets, putting more pressure