Turkish cities hit the top 10 fastest-growing list

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

İzmir city’s symbol, İzmir Clock Tower, located in the square of Konak district is seen in this file photo. The city is one of the fastest growing metropolises in the world.

Turkey’s three metropolises of İzmir, Ankara and Istanbul were among the fastest-growing metropolitan economies, according to a report released by the Brookings Institution.

Turkey’s western province of İzmir was ranked the fourth among the fastest-growing metropolitan economies, the report titled “Global MetroMonitor 2011: Volatility, Growth, and Recovery” said.

Ankara took sixth place, while Istanbul was ranked seventh. These three metropolises are also the largest among Turkey’s provinces.

The report served as “an analysis of per capita income and employment changes in the 2010 to 2011 period for 200 of the world’s largest metropolitan economies, which account for nearly one-half (48 percent) of global output but contain only 14 percent of world population and employment.”

The list was based on the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution’s analysis of data from Oxford Economics, Moody’s Analytics and the U.S. Census Bureau. The institute is one of America’s oldest think tanks, which conducts research and education primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, foreign policy and global economy.

Shanghai’s economy fastest growing
Metropolitan areas in China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia dominated the list’s first 10 spots.

The top performer was Shanghai, China’s industry, finance, trade and technology center. With an economy the size of Finland’s, Shanghai has seen income grow 9.8 percent and employment expand at a 5.8 percent rate in 2010 to 2011, the report said. Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Shenyang are the other metropolises that made the top 10.

Emerging countries lead
Saudi Arabian metropolitan areas, namely Riyadh and Jeddah, ranked second and third on the list. Meanwhile, Greek capital Athens was the bottom performer due to continuing debt woes of the country, which is in the brink of default.

The report said, “90 percent of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies among the 200 largest worldwide were located outside North America and Western Europe. By contrast, 95 percent of the slowest-growing metro economies were in the United States, Western Europe and earthquake-damaged Japan.

“Metropolitan areas specializing in commodities and business and financial services within their countries exhibited the strongest performance,” the report said.

“In Shanghai, per capita income grew by nearly 10 percent in 2011. Ankara, Turkey, saw employment grow nearly 6 percent. Santiago, Chile, posted at least 5 percent growth in income and employment,” said Alain Berube, the co-author of the Global MetroMonitor, in an article for CNN.