Turkish economy expands 7.6% year-on-year in Q2

Türkiye's economy grew 7.6% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2022, according to the country's statistical authority on Wednesday.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices surged 114.6% to 3.4 trillion Turkish liras ($219.3 billion) in the April-June period, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

During this period, while the annual sectoral growth was 7.8% in industry and 18.1% in services, construction decreased by 10.9% and agriculture by 2.9%. The economy thus recorded one of the highest growth rates in the G20.

With this growth, Türkiye became the second-fastest growing economy in the G20 after Saudi Arabia.

Final consumption expenditure of resident households increased by 22.5%, while the government's final consumption rose by 2.3% in the second quarter compared with the same period last year.

Turkish economy model

Commenting on the figures, the country's Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said the economy had maintained balanced growth for five quarters.

Noting that the strong annual increase in machinery and equipment investments over the last two-and-a-half years continued with 17.8% in the second quarter, Nebati underlined that this was a positive development in terms of increasing production capacity.

"In this period, an additional 900,000 people were employed compared to the end of last year, and the unemployment rate fell to 10.3%," he said, adding 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 in the rest of the year.

The hallmark of the Turkish economy is balanced, sustainable, and employment-oriented growth, he said.

Türkiye's economy had grown 7.3% year-on-year in the first quarter.

Turkish Central Bank recently cut its interest rate by 100 basis points from 14% to 13% in an effort to shore up growth, while the country's annual inflation rate was at 79.6% in July.