Capacity utilization stays at record low
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Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mart 11, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Turkish manufacturers’ capacity utilization stayed at the lowest in at least nine years in February as the global crisis depressed demand and drove many companies to halt output.
Manufacturers were using 63.8 percent of their capacity, the same as a month earlier, the Turkish Statistical Institute said on its Web site yesterday. February's capacity utilization, a leading indicator of manufacturing industry and economic growth, registered a fall of 15.5 percentage points from the previous year, data from the Ankara-based institute showed.
"Capacity utilization figures clearly represent the ongoing contraction in the economy. I cannot say it's a big surprise. We will continue to have these problems for 3-5 months. There is no light at the end of tunnel in the short term," Turkish Industry Minister Zafer Cağlayan told broadcaster CNN Türk. Capacity use was expected to fall to 62.9 percent, according to the median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg survey.
Carmakers such as Ford Otosan, Ford Motor Co.’s unit in Turkey, halted production in February as orders from Turkey and the European Union slumped. Industrial output fell 21.3 percent in January, the biggest decline since monthly records began in 1986.
Seeking to avert recession, the Central Bank has cut its benchmark interest rate by a total of 5.25 percentage points in the last four months, taking it to a record low of 11.5 percent in February. The Bank next meets to set rates on March 19.
IMF negotiations
Recession fears and the sheer scale of the industrial collapse as Turkey's export and domestic markets wither fanned fresh calls for a major loan deal with the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, after the government suspended negotiations in late January, reported Reuters. The IMF has said it expects the Turkish economy to contract 1.5 percent in 2009, but many economists have downwardly revised their forecasts to a contraction of 2-3 percent.
"Capacity utilization figures clearly represent the ongoing contraction in the economy. I cannot say it's a big surprise. We will continue to have these problems for 3-5 months. There is no light at the end of tunnel in the short term," Turkish Industry Minister Zafer Cağlayan told broadcaster CNN Türk. Capacity use was expected to fall to 62.9 percent, according to the median estimate of five economists in a Bloomberg survey.
Carmakers such as Ford Otosan, Ford Motor Co.’s unit in Turkey, halted production in February as orders from Turkey and the European Union slumped. Industrial output fell 21.3 percent in January, the biggest decline since monthly records began in 1986.
Seeking to avert recession, the Central Bank has cut its benchmark interest rate by a total of 5.25 percentage points in the last four months, taking it to a record low of 11.5 percent in February. The Bank next meets to set rates on March 19.
IMF negotiations
Recession fears and the sheer scale of the industrial collapse as Turkey's export and domestic markets wither fanned fresh calls for a major loan deal with the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, after the government suspended negotiations in late January, reported Reuters. The IMF has said it expects the Turkish economy to contract 1.5 percent in 2009, but many economists have downwardly revised their forecasts to a contraction of 2-3 percent.