Business

Minister Mus: Turkey’s economy grew by 21.7%, breaking a record

“The Turkish economy grew by 7.2% in the first quarter of 2021 and by 21.7% in the second quarter,” said Mehmet Mus, Minister of Trade.

Parliamentary Planning and Budget Committee, chaired by AK Party Bingol Deputy Cevdet Yilmaz, convened to discuss the 2022 budgets of the Ministry of Commerce and its affiliates. Making a presentation to the Commission, Minister of Trade Mus talked about the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak on the economy and said, “Misunderstandings have been broken in the functioning of supply chains, and the global economy has faced its biggest test since the second world war. Turkey has become one of the leading countries in the world in terms of vaccination rates, with the initiatives of our government for the supply of vaccines and the devoted efforts of our healthcare professionals.”

‘TURKISH ECONOMY BROKE A RECORD’

Referring to the increase in inflation, Minister Mus said, “In this period, we observe severe increases in logistics and energy costs, and prices of basic food and industrial commodities. In particular, the increases in natural gas and electricity prices rose to unsettling levels as of the third quarter. Changes in climatic conditions such as drought as well as the increase in energy demand due to the recovery in the global economy are effective in the rise in energy prices. The aforementioned price increases, supply-demand imbalances and disruptions in the supply chain continue to pose an important risk factor in the production processes of all countries. Despite all these negativities, the Turkish economy recorded a record growth of 7.2% in the first quarter of 2021 and 21.7% in the second quarter. With these values, the Turkish economy performs well above the estimates of international organizations. In the IMF’s October Outlook Report, 2021 growth forecasts have made the highest increase among the G-20 countries for the Turkish economy.”

‘TURKISH ECONOMY CREATED 1 MILLION 600 THOUSAND ADDITIONAL EMPLOYMENTS’

Noting that the Turkish economy created more than 1 million 600 thousand additional jobs as of September 2021 compared to the pre-pandemic period, Minister Mus said: “About half of this additional employment created came from the industry sector. The manufacturing industry capacity utilization rate, which declined to 61.9% due to the effect of the pandemic, exceeded the pre-pandemic level by 76.6% with the significant support it received from the increase in exports, and stood at 77.5% as of October. This situation is one of the most important indicators of how well we have taken the right steps to reach the target of Turkey, which produces and has a foreign trade surplus. We believe that we will exceed the Medium Term Program (MTP) growth target of 9% by the end of 2021, with new investments that accelerated with the rapid increase in our exports and the increase in production triggered by exports. We are working hard to spread development to all segments of the society with our economy growing on the basis of exports, production, investment and employment.”

‘We broke an export record in 10 months of the last 12 months’

Pointing out that the protectionist policies that have increased in global trade in recent years have continued by gaining a new dimension with the pandemic, Mus said, “The year 2021 is a year in which the share of our exports, which is almost the locomotive of our economy, has increased from global exports and historical peaks have been experienced in terms of our exports. In the January-October period of 2021, our exports increased by 33.9% compared to the same period of the previous year and reached $181.8 billion, and our imports increased by 22.5% to $215.6 billion. With our export figure in the first 10 months of 2021, we have surpassed our annual export record of $180.8 billion in 2019. In addition, we broke export records in 10 of the last 12 months. With the continuation of this performance, we foresee that our exports will be realized above the OVP estimate of $211 billion until the end of 2021.”

‘E-TRADE VOLUME INCREASED TO ₺161 BILLION’

Reminding that with the pandemic conditions, electronic commerce has gained great momentum in Turkey as well as in the whole world, Minister Mus said, “The e-commerce volume, which was approximately ₺92 billion in the first 6 months of 2020, increased to ₺161 billion in the same period of 2021. The total number of businesses engaged in e-commerce activities has reached 321 thousand. On the other hand, discount sales advertisements that our citizens have been heavily exposed to recently are also closely followed by our ministry. Ex officio investigations are made on companies that organize discount sales campaigns, especially on electronic commerce sites, and necessary administrative sanctions are applied to unrealistic discounts.”

Minister Mus also said that the 2022 budget of the Ministry of Commerce is ₺8 billion 451 million 926 thousand in total.

Source: Sabah / Translated by Irem Yildiz

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