By MARC CHAMPION and JOE PARKINSON
[TURKECON] Bloomberg
As Turkish manufacturers produce more, they also import more because they rely on semifinished components. Above, employees working earlier this year at the Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii AS factory in Bursa, Turkey.
Bloomberg
As Turkish manufacturers produce more, they also import more because they rely on semifinished components. Above, employees working earlier this year at the Karsan Otomotiv Sanayii AS factory in Bursa, Turkey.
ISTANBUL—The Turkish economy grew by 11% in the first quarter, outstripping China and confirming Turkey as Eurasia’s rising tiger.
Turkish Tiger
Demand-fueled surge in growth sucks in imports
Q1 year-on-year GDP growth: 11%
Q1 quarter-on-quarter GDP growth: 1.4%
May imports year on year: 42.6%
May exports year on year: 11.7%
May trade deficit year on year: 104% ($10,057 million from $4,926 million in May 2010)
Source: Turkstat
Thursday’s official growth figure, compared with the year-earlier period, easily beat market expectations, at a time when many of Turkey’s neighbors in the Middle East and Europe struggle with political turmoil and bailouts.
“In growth, we passed China and Argentina, we became No. 1 in the world,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan boasted in response to the figures Thursday, as he addressed lawmakers from the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in Ankara. China and Argentina posted 9.6% and 9.9% growth, respectively, for the quarter.
Turkey’s hot economy stands in contrast with those of most neighbors in the European Union, in particular Greece, whose leader last week called on his citizens to emulate the success of his country’s old rival in bouncing back from economic adversity. Rapid growth also swept Mr. Erdogan to re-election June 12, cementing his position at the head of the region’s emerging political and economic power.
But in what is fast emerging as a Turkish paradox, foreign investors aren’t rushing to snap up assets.
via Turkey’s Economy Expands 11% – WSJ.com.
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