Turkey’s purchasing power lagging behind

ISTANBUL

According to the first preliminary estimates of the European Comparison Program for 2012, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita index based on Purchasing Power Parity in Turkey is 56, putting it 31 out of 37 countries, state-run statistic body TÜİK said yesterday. While GDP per capita in Turkey is 56, the average for the 27 EU countries is 100.

Purchasing power parities (PPPs) are currency conversion rates that are applied in order to convert economic indicators from national currency to an artificial common currency which equalizes the purchasing power of different national currencies and enables meaningful volume comparisons between countries.

Among 37 countries involved in the comparison, the country with the highest index of GDP per capita is Luxembourg with 271, the country with the lowest index of GDP per capita is Bosnia and Herzegovina with 28. The country groups included in the comparison are the 27 member states of European Union, three European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries (Switzerland, Iceland and Norway), one acceding state (Croatia), four candidate countries (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey), and two potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita is an alternative indicator better adapted to describe the material welfare situation of households. AIC per capita in Turkey is 60, whereas the average of the 27 EU member countries as 100. Among the 37 countries included in the comparison, Luxembourg has the highest actual individual consumption per capita with 141, while Albania has the lowest with 34.