Turkish economy

As the global economy enters a tumultuous period, Turkey offers an optimistic picture to those abroad because of its current stability and the strong fundamentals of its economy, according to a European Union representative.
Despite political uncertainty in the country, both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the EU remain optimistic about Turkey's growth stability. “Global and domestic challenges have increased. Clearly, it is going to be more difficult to achieve the growth rate we saw between 2002 and 2007, which was 7 percent on average,” Ulrike Hauer, head of the trade, economy and agriculture section of the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey, told the Turkish Daily News.

Speaking on the sidelines of the European Finance Convention in Istanbul yesterday, Hauer said that today “the fundamentals of the Turkish economy are so much better.”

“I think this is the view of not only my colleagues, but possibly also of the commission in Brussels,” she said. “We would probably say a 4 percent growth is realistic for Turkey this year. Turkey needs to raise its sustained growth rate significantly. But today it is in a much better position than it was five years ago.”

Despite high unemployment, Turkey presents a reassuring picture to the EU in terms of economic stability, she noted, adding, “We no longer see a risk that Turkey will collapse into some kind of financial crisis. Turkey's economy has been much more stable and resilient to these kind of shocks.”

The IMF representative at the conference, meanwhile, noted that the current slowdown in the Turkish economy is linked to external factors.

“We expect Turkey to grow in a range between 2 and 4.5 percent this year,” said Hossein Samiei, the permanent representative of the IMF to Turkey. “Growth is slowing down while inflation rises. But obviously, what brought this slowdown was the shock of rising energy and commodity prices.”

Turkish banks are “less dependent on external resources,” Samiei noted. “This fact clearly shows that Turkey's banking sector is safe and sound.”