Turkey's GDP growth slowed significantly in the second quarter of 2024, with official statistics revealing a year-on-year growth rate of just 2.5%, a decline from the 5.3% recorded in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the industrial sector contracted by 1.8 percent, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data. Other service activities grew by 7.4 percent, construction by 6.5 percent, the agricultural sector and real estate activities by 3.7 percent, information and communication activities and financial and insurance activities by 3.4 percent, public administration, education, human health and social service activities by 3.2 percent, services by 2.9 percent and professional, administrative and support service activities by 0.6 percent.
In the second quarter of 2024, GDP estimate by production method increased by 78.6 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and reached 9.9 trillion liras. The second quarter value of GDP was realized as 308 billion 158 million in US dollars at current prices.
This slowdown is attributed to the government's policies aimed at curbing inflation, which have included interest rate cuts and measures to suppress wages and consumer spending.
The Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey Research Center (DİSK-AR) warned that the government’s policies could have severe consequences for employment.
"The government's focus on taming inflation at the expense of wages and purchasing power has backfired," said DİSK-AR. "We are now seeing a sharp deceleration in growth, and it's highly likely that unemployment will climb in the coming months." (VK)