Turkey’s economy powered ahead in the third quarter, with gross domestic product 11.1 per cent higher than in the same period in 2016.
The pace of growth reported by the government statistics office on Monday was up from an average of 5 per cent during the previous three quarters. The country is on track to deliver GDP growth of as much as 7 per cent for the whole of 2017, about twice the amount expected earlier in the year. The economy had grown by 5.3 percent in the first quarter and 5.4 percent year-on-year in the second, according to revised figures.
Growth in the third quarter was especially strong in annual terms because of the comparison with the third quarter of 2016.
In the latest data, household spending increased by 11.7 percent, but government spending in the third quarter showed a smaller rise of 2.8 percent. Growth was driven by construction and services, as well as a strong rise in exports, official data published by the Turkish Statistics Institute showed.
President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Tuesday that Turkey will grow around 7.5 percent in 2017, following a blistering 11.1 percent surge in GDP in the third quarter. Speaking at an event in Ankara, Erdogan also said he is against high interest rates and that inflation will not go down in a country where interest rates are high.
