Turkey's Economy Grows Less Than Expected
2012-09-10 17:43:20
The Turkish economy slowed to 2.9% expansion on the year in the second quarter, a lower rate than expected, suggesting that the government could fail to meet its 4% economic growth target this year.
Monday's official gross domestic product growth figure was below the average forecast of 3.3% growth, according to seven analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
In seasonally adjusted terms, GDP rose 1.8% in the second quarter from the first quarter and grew 3.2% on the year.
According to data from Turkey's statistics agency, Turkey's second-quarter growth came after a revised 3.3% expansion on the year in the first quarter.
After the data, the Turkish lira little moved against the dollar. At 1005 GMT, the Turkish lira was trading 0.1% lower against the dollar. The yield on two-year benchmark bonds traded at 7.31% compared with 7.35% on Friday.
Economists expect weaker GDP growth in the final two quarters. The government is targeting 4% economic growth this year, which is already well below the 8.5% pace in 2011.
"With first-half growth at 3.1% and signs of slowdown in the second half mounting, we remain comfortable in our full-year growth forecast at 2.9%," said Inan Demir, chief economist with Finansbank.
According to a breakdown of the data, domestic private consumption slowed to minus 0.5% in the second quarter from a growth of 0.2% in the first quarter. Net exports contributed 5.7 percentage points to the GDP growth.
Turkey has managed to diversify its export markets despite economic and political turbulence all around it. As the economic crisis in the European , the largest buyer of Turkish goods, crimped demand to the west, Turkey increased sales to the Middle East and North Africa.
Turkey continued to raise its export revenue, which reached a record $135 billion last year, or about 17% of GDP.