Turkish economy grows 5%

Turkey’s economy grew by five per cent in the first quarter of 2017 compared to the same period last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced today.

The figure surprised markets that expected growth rate of 3.8 per cent indicating that the Turkish economy is recovering after slowing significantly following the attempted coup in July 2016.

Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate grew by 2.9 per cent in 2016 to reach 3.5 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Read: Turkey to hire Syrian doctors at refugee health centers

According to TurkStat, the increase of exports by 10.6 per cent has led to the strong growth in the first quarter of 2017.

“This is apparently due in part to the weakening of the Turkish lira, which supports the competitiveness of export commodities,” said William Jackson, an economist at Capital Economics.

The Turkish lira lost about 20 per cent of its value against the US dollar last year, but has been rebounding in recent weeks.