Economy of Turkey

Turkey began a series of reforms in the 1980s designed to shift the economy from a statist, insulated system to a more private-sector, market-based model. The reforms spurred solid growth, but growth that has been punctuated by sharp recessions and financial crises in 1994, 1999, and 2001. Turkey's failure to pursue additional reforms, combined with large and growing public sector deficits, resulted in high inflation, increasing macroeconomic volatility, and a weak banking sector.

The Ecevit government, in power from 1999 through 2002, restarted structural reforms in line with ongoing economic programs under the standby agreements signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), including passage of social security reform, public finance reform, state banks reform, banking sector reform, increasing transparency in public sector, and also introduction of related legislation to liberalize telecom, and energy markets. Under the IMF program, the government also sought to use exchange rate policies to curb inflation.

By late 2000, a growing current account deficit, the weak banking system, and growing concern over the failure to implement needed structural reforms resulted in a liquidity crisis that led to a revised IMF program. In February 2001, a public dispute between the president and prime minister triggered a run on the lira and a dramatic increase in interest rates. The result was rapid inflation, a severe banking crisis, a massive rise in domestic public debt, and a deep economic downturn (GNP fell 9.5% in 2001). The government was forced to float the lira and adopt a more ambitious economic reform program, including a very tight fiscal policy, enhanced structural reforms, and unprecedented levels of IMF lending.

Large IMF loans--tied to implementation of ambitious economic reforms--enabled Turkey to stabilize interest rates and the currency and to meet its debt obligations. In 2002 and 2003, the reforms began to show results. With the exception of a period of market jitters in the run-up to the Iraq war, inflation and interest rates have fallen significantly, the currency has stabilized, and confidence has begun to return. Nonetheless, the economy remains very fragile, and continued implementation of reforms is essential to sustain growth and stability.

Turkey has a number of bilateral investment and tax treaties, including with the United States, that guarantee free repatriation of capital in convertible currencies and eliminate double taxation. Nonetheless, foreign direct investment has totaled only $15.7 billion as of November 2002, a modest sum reflecting investor concerns about political and macroeconomic uncertainty, burdensome regulation, and a large state role in the economy.

Turkey seeks to improve its investment climate through administrative streamlining and has taken steps to improve its investment climate through administrative streamlining, an end to foreign investment screening, and strengthened intellectual property legislation. However, a number of disputes involving foreign investors in Turkey and certain policies, such as high taxation of cola products and continuing gaps in the intellectual property regime, inhibit investment. The Turkish privatization board is in the process of privatizing a series of state-owned companies, including the state alcohol and tobacco company and the oil refining parastatal. In 2004, the Privatization Board is scheduled to privatize the telephone company and some of the state-owned banks. The government also has committed in the World Trade Organization to liberalize the telecommunications sector at the beginning of 2004.

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