Turkish economy
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Inflation registered in 2005 was 1.60 percent in consumer prices and 7.61 percent in wholesale prices, on a year-on-year basis, on Nov.2005. On the other hand Turkish economy grew 5.5 percent in the first nine months of the year, however the current accounts deficit amounted to 17.1 billion USD in the first ten months of 2005. Meanwhile exporters expressed their concerns regarding the overvaluation of YTL against U.S. dollar and euro.
Turkish Statistics Board (TUIK) said that GNP was 352,879 million YTL with current prices in 2005. ($1=1.35 YTL)
According to August 2005 data, unemployment rate was 9.5 percent; the number of employed being 22,874,000 and the number of jobless 2,390,000 in the third quarter of 2005. Officials reminded that unemployment rate was 10.3 percent in 2004.
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Foreign trade
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Turkey's exports amounted to 59,438 million USD, while imports totaled 95,016 million USD and foreign trade deficit was 35,579 million USD in the first ten months of 2005. The ratio of exports over imports was 62.55 percent during the same period.
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Foreign exchange reserves & debts
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Foreign exchange reserves of Turkey totaled 49,912 millions USD in December 2005. Domestic debt stock amounted to 242,779 m USD between January-October 2005.
Foreign debt stock which was 161.6 billion USD at the end of 2004 reached 161.9 billion USD in the first six months of 2005. Â Â Â
On the other hand, selling rate of U.S. dollar which was 1.3447 YTL at the end of 2004, go up to 1.3524 YTL in the last month of 2005.
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Privatization
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2005 was the most successful year in privatization. Turkey earned 16,948 million USD from privatization. 8,208 million USD came from sales and transfers, while 8,740 million USD are to be collected after the completion of approval and signature procedures by the competent authorities.
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In 2005 Turkey, dropped 6 zero from Turkish lira (TL) and started to use new Turkish lira (YTL). Ankara also began entry talks with the EU on October 3rd, 2005.
On the other hand, no bids were taken in the tender held on Apr. 8th for the privatization of Turkish tobacco & alcoholic drinks monopoly, TEKEL.
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Visa for Galataport:   Istanbul Culture & Natural Heritages Institution Regional Board approved Galataport project on April 17th. A Consortium led by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. offered the highest bid (3,538,449,233 Euro) in Galataport tender on September 16th.Â