Turkey entered pandemic era with 4.5 pct GDP growth: Data

ANKARA

The Turkish economy grew 4.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020, the country's statistical authority announced on May 29.

Gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices amounted to 1.07 trillion Turkish Liras ($176.1 billion) in the January-March period, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said.

“Seasonally and calendar adjusted GDP increased by 0.6 percent compared with the previous quarter,” said the institute.

The figure came at quite worse than analysts' expectations. A group of 16 economists surveyed by Anadolu Agency on May 27 had projected the Turkish economy to expand 5.2 percent in the first quarter of this year. Economists’ forecasts hovered between 4.4 and 5.8 percent.

The economists also predicted that Turkey's annual GDP in 2020 would narrow 1.5 percent on average.