Economy - overview:
Turkey has a dynamic
economy that is a complex mix of modern
industry and commerce along with traditional village
agriculture and crafts. It has a strong and rapidly growing
private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in basic industry,
banking,
transport, and
communication. Its most important industry - and largest exporter - is
textiles and clothing, which is almost entirely in private hands. The economic situation in recent years has been marked by erratic economic growth and serious imbalances. After a sharp drop in
1994, real
GNP averaged 6.5% annual growth in
1995-
98; it then fell about 5% in
1999 as Turkey was adversely affected by
Russia's economic crisis and two major
earthquakes. The already-large
public sector[?] fiscal deficit widened in 1999 to perhaps 14% of GDP - due in large part to the huge burden of interest payments which accounted for 42% of central grovernment spending. Despite the implementation in January
1996 of a customs union with the
EU, foreign direct investment in the country remains low - less than $1 billion annually - perhaps because potential investors are concerned about economic and political stability. Prospects for the future are brighter - including prospects for foreign investment - because the ECEVIT government is implementing a major economic reform program, including a tighter budget, social security reform, banking reorganization, and greatly accelerated privatization.
GDP:
- purchasing power parity - $409.4 billion (1999 est.)
- real growth rate: -5% (1999 est.)
- per capita: purchasing power parity - $6,200 (1999 est.)
- composition by sector:
- agriculture: 18%
- industry: 29%
- services: 53% (1998)
Population below poverty line: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
- lowest 10%: NA%
- highest 10%: NA%
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 65% (1999 est.)
Labor force: 23.8 million (April 1999)
- note: about 1.5 million Turks work abroad (1994)
Labor force - by occupation: (April 1999)
- agriculture 45.8%
- services 33.7%
- industry 20.5%
Unemployment rate: 7.3% plus underemployment of 6.9% (April 1999 est.)
Budget:
- revenues: $45.2 billion
- expenditures: $66.7 billion, including capital expenditures of $3.4 billion (1999)
Industries: textiles, food processing, autos, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper
Industrial production growth rate: -5.2% (1999 est.)
Electricity:
- production: 116.5 TWh (1999)
- production by source:
- fossil fuel: 69.4%
- hydro: 30.5%
- nuclear: 0%
- other: 0.1% (1999 est.)
- consumption: 118.5 TWh (1999)
- exports: 0.209 TWh (1999 est.)
- imports: 2.3 TWh (1999 est.)
Agriculture - products:
tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulse, citrus; livestock
Exports: $26 billion (f.o.b., 1999 est.)
- commodities: apparel 28%, foodstuffs 17%, textiles 12%, metal manufactures 9% (1998)
- partners: Germany 21%, US 9%, UK 7%, Italy 6%, France 6% (1999)
Imports: $40 billion (c.i.f., 1999 est.)
- commodities: machinery 29%, semi-finished goods 16%, chemicals 14%, transport equipment 11%, fuels 8% (1998)
- partners: Germany 14%, Italy 8%, US 8%, France 8%, Russia 6%, UK 5% (1999)
Debt - external: $104 billion (1999)
Economic aid - recipient: ODA[?], $195 million (1993)
Currency: Turkish lira (TL) = 100 kurus (theoretical)
Fiscal year: calendar year
- See also : Turkey