IMF: Turkey’s per capita income expected to be up by 4.7 pct

While the Turkish government is aiming to increase the per capita income to $25,076 in 2023, which marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Turkish Republic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that in 2015, the per capita income in Turkey will increase by 4.7 percent from $10,518 to $11,018.

In Turkey, where the population increases approximately by 1 million each year, the per capita income in 2002 was $3,521, but this amount tripled in 2011, reaching $10,476. Turkey's per capita income in 2015 is expected to rise by 4.7 percent in 2015, thus making Turkey the country with the highest increase in per capita income among the 18 countries located in the eurozone.

Latvia, which joined the eurozone on Jan. 1, 2014 has a 2.2 million population, and the per capita income is expected to increase to $16,836 in 2015 from $16,144 in 2014, which is higher than the per capita income increases expected in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia and Estonia.

The annual average growth rate in Latvia was over 10 percent between 2003 and 2007, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in the E.U. However, after 2007, with the increasing current account deficit, inflation rates and deteriorating balance of international trade, the country became the fastest shrinking economy in the E.U. in 2009, and has entered into an economic recession. With the IMF's and E.U.'s assistance programs that commenced in 2008, the growth rate of Latvia decreased to -0.3 percent in 2010 from -17.7 percent in 2009 and reached 5 percent in 2011 and 4.5 percent in 2012.

Estonia, with an estimated per capita increase of around 4 percent, is also among the eurozone countries that will achieve the highest increases in per capita income. Estonia came second after Latvia, followed by Malta with an estimated 3.2 percent increase in 2015. Further, the per capita income in Slovakia is expected to increase by 3 percent, by 2.5 percent in Greece, 2.3 percent in Austria, 2.2 percent in Germany, 2.1 percent in Ireland, 1.7 percent in Spain, 1.6 percent in Portugal, 1.4 percent in Belgium and Slovenia, 1.3 percent in Luxembourg, by 1.1 percent in Finland, by 1 percent in the Netherlands, by 0.7 percent in France and by 0.6 percent in Italy. The only country within the eurozone that might face a decrease in per capita income is Cyprus, with figures estimated to fall to $23,782 from $23,954.