Turkish economy grows 1.8 pct in 2020

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Turkey's economy expanded 1.8 percent year-on-year in 2020 amid economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the country's statistical authority on March 1.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices stood at5.1 trillion Turkish liras (some $717.1 billion) last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said.

A panel of 21 economists polled by the Anadolu Agency on Feb. 26 had projected that the Turkish economy would grow 2.2 percent in 2020.

In the last quarter of 2020, the economy posted an annual growth rate of 5.9 percent, TÜİK data showed.

Turkey and China were the only countries that posted a positive growth rate among all G20 countries for which data are available, while the rest saw a shrinkage during the same period.

Economists' forecast for the last quarter of last year was 7 percent on average, with the lowest at 5 percent and the highest at 8.3 percent.

The economy registered a growth of 6.3 percent in the third quarter of last year after a contraction of 10.3 percent in the second quarter as the coronavirus' impact started to be felt in earnest. Turkey's GDP expanded 4.5 percent in the first quarter.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 7.00 on average in 2020.

Turkey's New Economic Program, announced last September, expected the Turkish economy to grow 0.3 percent last year.