Growth, foreign trade data due this week

ISTANBUL

Türkiye will release some key data this week, including GDP growth, foreign trade and the economic confidence index.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) will announce the growth figures for the second quarter on Aug. 31. The Turkish economy expanded 7.3 percent in January-March this year.

The second-quarter growth is expected to exceed 7.3 percent, Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said last week.

In the whole of 2021, the Turkish economy grew by 11 percent, accelerating from the 1.1 percent expansion in the previous year.

Leading indicators for the third quarter point to some loss of momentum in economic activity, the Central Bank warned on Aug. 18 in a statement released following the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, where a decision was taken to reduce the policy rate (one-week repo auction rate) from 14 percent to 13 percent.

TÜİK will release foreign trade statistics on Aug. 29 for the month of July and the economic confidence index for August.

In June, exports grew by 18.7 percent year-on-year to $23.4 billion and imports rose by 39.7 percent annually to $31.6 billion, leading to a foreign trade deficit of $8.2 billion, up 185 percent from a year ago.

Preliminary data from the Trade Ministry showed that the pace of export growth slowed to 13.4 percent in July, while imports gained traction, rising by 41 percent. The foreign trade gap widened by 145 percent in July from the same month of 2021 to $10.6 billion, the ministry said.

Separate data from TÜİK will show how confidence in the economy changed in August. The economic confidence index dropped by 0.2 percent in July from June to 93.4. Any figure below the 100-mark indicates pessimism.