Public investments dominate buildings

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s construction sector posted a 6.6 percent growth in the first half, based on public investments, according to a report.

Turkey’s construction sector grew 6.6 percent in the first half of the year, mainly due to public investments, according to a report by the Construction Materials Industrialists Association (İMSAD).

“The private construction sector has been shrinking for the last successive six quarters. We believe that the whole sector could grow in a healthier manner with more private investments, rather than public investments,” the head of İMSAD Dündar Yetişener said in a written statement yesterday.

Yetişener said the construction sector’s growth rate at 6.6 percent is above their expectations, according to the Construction and Construction Materials Sector First Half of 2013 Report. “This growth in the sector results from public investments and shrinkage in the private sector investments continues. The expenditures of the public sector construction materials keep shrinking in the last six quarter as it dropped by 13.9 percent in the first quarter and 3.4 percent in the second quarter,” he said. If the private sector investments grow, the construction sector grows more healthily, he added.

The report also said the domestic markets supported the construction sector in the first half. But the exports showed only a 1.5 percent increase in this period from the same period a year earlier and reached 11.4 billion. k HDN