2023 growth expectations at 3.5 pct

ANKARA

The GDP growth expectations for 2023 remain unchanged at 3.5 percent, the Central Bank’s Survey of Market Participants have shown.

Participants’ growth forecast for next year is 4.4 percent, also unchanged from the previous month’s survey.

The Turkish economy grew by 5.6 percent last year, with GDP expanding 0.9 percent in the final quarter of 2022 from the third quarter of the same year.

Participants of the Central Bank survey increased slightly their end-2022 inflation expectations from a previous 37.72 percent to 37.77 percent.

The annual consumer price inflation in Türkiye eased from 55.18 percent in February to 50.5 percent in March, showed the latest official data.

The 12-month ahead inflation expectations, however, fell from 31.63 percent to 31 percent.

Participants of the survey lifted their current account deficit estimate for 2023 from $35.98 billion to $37.75 billion.

They expect the current account deficit to be $25.79 billion next year.

They also said they expect the U.S. dollar/Turkish Lira rate to be 23.15 at the end of this year, up from 22.91 in the previous survey.