On April 1, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) announced that Turkey's gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter of last year grew by 7.4 percent to TRY 364.2 billion ($201 billion) in current prices and by 1.4 percent in constant prices to TRY 29.9 billion ($16.5 billion), both compared to the same period of the previous year. Gross domestic products growth in the fourth quarter was down from 1.6 percent in the third quarter and 2.9 percent growth seen in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, in the fourth quarter of 2012 Turkey's seasonal and calendar adjusted GDP remained stable compared to the previous quarter.
In the whole of 2012, Turkey's GDP indicated a 9.2 percent increase to TRY 1.4 trillion ($782 billion) in current prices and a 2.2 percent increase to TRY 117.75 billion ($65 billion) in constant prices.
Turkey's economy minister Zafer Cagalayan said that the Turkish economic growth rate was pulling down by the contraction in domestic demand, stating, "Net exports contributed a 4.1 point to the growth rate. So in 2012, Turkey's economy grew by net exports. I believe that both domestic demand and net exports need to contribute to the growth and domestic demand was missing. I hope we will create more jobs, more investments will be done and we will see that the domestic demand increase will contribute a growth in GDP in 2013 and in the coming years." Cagalayan also added that the 2.2 percent in the country's GDP rate is not a bad figure considering the conditions in the other economies.
