Türkiye’s economy grew 7.6% year-on-year in Q2 2022 as expected, extending a hot streak on strong domestic demand and exports, according to new data on Wednesday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 2.1% compared with the previous quarter on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.
A poll by Anadolu News Agency forecast a 7.3%growth, while a Reuters poll forecast the economy to have expanded 7.5% in the second quarter with full-year growth seen at 4%.
Economists see growth falling in H2 2022 due to a downward trend in domestic and foreign demand, led by an expected slowdown in Türkiye’s largest trade partners.
Last year, Türkiye’s economy bounced back strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic and grew a revised 11.4%, its highest rate in a decade.
TurkStat pointed out that the GDP at current prices surged 114.6% to 3.4 trillion Turkish liras ($219.3 billion) in the April-June period.
Commenting on the figures, the country's Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said the economy had maintained balanced growth for five quarters.
He indicated that his country's economy ranked second among the largest growing economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member states and G20 countries during Q2 2022.
“During this period, an additional 900,000 people were employed compared to late 2021 and the unemployment rate fell to 10.3%,” he said.
Nebati added that these gains had been achieved thanks to the Turkish Economy Model, which prioritizes growth and employment and supports production and exports, which will continue until the end of the year.
Trade Minister Mehmet Mus, for his part, said that exports have contributed 3.87 points to the country's economic growth in the second quarter of the year.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s economic plan prioritizes growth, employment, investment and exports, driven by a series of unorthodox interest rate cuts that sparked a currency crisis and inflationary spiral late last year.
He aims to tackle inflation by shoring up Türkiye’s chronic current account deficit instead of rate hikes.
An easing cycle under Erdogan's program led the lira to end last year down 44% against the dollar and shed another 27% so far this year, sending inflation to a 24-year high of nearly 80% in July.
