Turkey’s industrial output slumps 17.6 percent
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Daily News with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Şubat 10, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL - Economy newsrooms at Turkish newspapers yesterday were baffled by a "miraculous" rise in textile production in December, but the joy was short-lived, as corrected figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute, or TÜİK, showed industrial production declined in December by the most since records began in 1986.
Industrial output fell an annual 17.6 percent, after declining a revised 13.3 percent in November, TÜİK said on its Web site yesterday, correcting the overall 11.9 percent contraction it had reported earlier.
The morning figures showed a 40 percent increase in textile production. TÜİK officials said they have to look at the figures again, responding to reporters of Referans business daily who were searching for a rational explanation. Shortly after, the Institute released correct figures, which displayed a far steeper decline. In fact textile production contracted 25.9 percent.
Turkey’s production is contracting as the global credit crisis slows demand at home and in Turkey’s main export market, the European Union. Seeking to avert a recession and job losses, the Central Bank has reduced the benchmark interest rate by 3.75 percentage points in the past three months, taking it to 13 percent. "We’re going to see a contraction of something like 5 percent in the final quarter of the year," Bloomberg quoted Haluk Bürümcekçi, chief economist for Fortis Bank in Istanbul, as saying. "The Central Bank is likely to reduce rates by half a point or perhaps a point."
GDP expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, its slowest pace in six years, after growing 2.3 percent in the previous three months. Industrial output fell an average of 12.6 percent in the final quarter of 2008, said TÜİK.
The morning figures showed a 40 percent increase in textile production. TÜİK officials said they have to look at the figures again, responding to reporters of Referans business daily who were searching for a rational explanation. Shortly after, the Institute released correct figures, which displayed a far steeper decline. In fact textile production contracted 25.9 percent.
Turkey’s production is contracting as the global credit crisis slows demand at home and in Turkey’s main export market, the European Union. Seeking to avert a recession and job losses, the Central Bank has reduced the benchmark interest rate by 3.75 percentage points in the past three months, taking it to 13 percent. "We’re going to see a contraction of something like 5 percent in the final quarter of the year," Bloomberg quoted Haluk Bürümcekçi, chief economist for Fortis Bank in Istanbul, as saying. "The Central Bank is likely to reduce rates by half a point or perhaps a point."
GDP expanded 0.5 percent in the third quarter of the year, its slowest pace in six years, after growing 2.3 percent in the previous three months. Industrial output fell an average of 12.6 percent in the final quarter of 2008, said TÜİK.