Turkey's economy grows 4.1% in first quarter of 2014

ISTANBUL — Turkish economists say the country's economy grew by 4.1 percent in the first quarter in 2014, according to twenty-two economists in Anadolu Agency's (AA) 'Growth Expectation Survey,' released on Wednesday.

The highest economic growth percentage predicted among the economists for quarter 1 in 2014 was 4.8 percent while the lowest was 3.1 percent.

The survey said the economists expected a 2.9 percent year-end growth in 2014, which was at 4 percent in 2013. The highest expectation by economists over a year-end growth in 2014 was 3.6 percent, while the lowest was 1.7 percent.

According to latest data by TurkStat, Turkey´s growth rate was 4.4 percent in the last quarter of 2013. Turkish GDP is estimated to have increased by four percent in 2013, compared with 2.1 percent in 2012. Its growth rate was at 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2013.

Turkey´s medium term economic program by the treasury said the country´s official figures for the growth rate would be 3.6 percent in 2013 and 4 percent this year.

However, the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development made a more conservative estimate in this year's growth at between 2 to 3 percent.

Turkey's gross domestic product increased by 257 percent between 2003 and 2012, reaching over US$800 billion, while the budget deficit decreased from 10 percent to less than 3 percent of the annual income in the same period.