Turkey’s 2014 growth up to 3 percent, minister foresees

ISTANBUL - Reuters

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Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci has said Turkish economic growth in the first quarter will not be negative, nor at its desired level, with an expected growth of 2.8 to 3 percent in 2014.

Zeybekci also said he expected a recovery in economic growth beginning in the second quarter.

“We cannot say 2014 ended in line with our foreign trade and growth targets, but we expect to see the announced growth rate for 2014 at 2.8-3 percent despite all fall backs,” he said after the Turkey-Poland Business Forum.

In the medium-term economic program, the 2014 growth target had been set at 4 percent, but was later changed to 3.3 percent due to global economic uncertainties.

The 2014 growth rates will be announced on March 31. According to the latest Reuters poll taken of 24 economists, growth was expected to remain around 2 percent for the last quarter of 2014 and 2.7 percent for the whole year.

Zeybekci noted GDP growth was mainly exports-based in 2014.

“If there had been any positive contribution to the export economy, the GDP would have grown at around zero. We didn’t see any contributions to domestic market growth,” he said, adding the government expected a revival in the domestic market in 2015.

“We also expect a rise in exports, thus contributing positively to growth rates by the end of March. We won’t expect the growth rates to be at desired levels for the first quarter of the year, but we also will not be negative in the first quarter of 2015. We expect a recovery in the GDP growth in the coming months,” he said.

“In the expected growth rates, the planned measures of the government and a recovery in the employment rate will play a great role. The recent slow-down in the Turkish economy will end by the second half of 2015,” he said.

The government also announced high priority economic programs, including around 3,000 action plans for the structural evolution of the economy.

The government aims to increase the GDP to $1.3 trillion and decrease the current account gap-to-GDP to 5.2 percent and unemployment rate to 7 percent by the end of 2018.