https://ahvalnews.com-Turkey’s economy grew by an annual 11 percent last year after the central bank cut interest rates and the government relaxed measures designed to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The economic expansion matched the median estimate of economists interviewed in a Reuters poll. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the economy grew by an annual 9.1 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute said on Monday.
Seasonally and calendar-adjusted quarter-on-quarter economic growth, used as the main indicator of economic performance by many governments and institutions around the world, slowed to 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter from 2.8 percent in the previous three months. That was the slowest expansion since the fourth quarter of 2020, the data showed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the central bank to lower interest rates late last year to help boost economic output and reduce financing costs for businesses. But the cuts, along with a spike in global energy prices, have pushed inflation in the county to 48.7 percent, the highest level in two decades. The lira slumped by 44 percent against the dollar in 2021, with most of those losses occurring in the fourth quarter, as Turks sold liras to protect their savings.
The lira’s losses have crimped economic growth in dollar terms. Economic output in 2021 totalled $802.7 billion compared with $795.2 billion in the 12 months to September last year. That translated into a quarterly expansion in annual output of 0.9 percent.
Growth in 2022 is expected to slow to 3.5 percent, according to the Reuters poll. A central bank survey of market participants in February predicted annual growth this year of 3.6 percent