Turkey needs stronger industry, says Economy Minister Çağlayan

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan speaks during a meeting. DHA photo

Turkey needs a faster industrial production rise to reach its midterm targets as the global economic outlook remains obscure, Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan said after yesterday’s industrial output data indicated a contraction.

“The industry sector’s share within the GDP should increase. Turkey’s future is based on production and particularly industrial production,” Çağlayan said.

The data announced by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) yesterday showed that seasonally and calendar-adjusted industrial production decreased by 0.6 percent compared with the previous month.

Çağlayan said there was a need for more investment, more production, more exports and employment to reach the 4 percent growth target of the Medium Term Program, and added that the global context becoming less clear raised the importance of these factors.

“The European economy is still weak but every recovery here will be our gain. The recovery in Europe will found the basis for a rise in our industrial production. In the past one or two months, the emerging markets’ outlook began to lose their clarity as well. Global growth forecasts will be updated downward soon. As Turkey, we should be stronger in this process,” he said.

And according to the minister, the key to ensure that is to keep a proactive stance for both exports and domestic demand.