The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) announced on Monday that industrial production was up 21.1 percent in March when compared to the same month of 2009, encouraging news for a swift exit from the global financial credit crunch of last year. The monthly increase in industrial production, the TurkStat report read, was 16.3 percent. These latest results herald a strong recuperation in Turkey’s manufacturing performance while raising hopes that the upward trend in the economy will continue in the months to come.Turkey’s industrial index increased by a record 25.2 percent in December of last year over the same month of 2008, before rising by 12.1 percent in January on a year-on-year basis. February saw an even better recovery in an 18.1 percent rise in industrial production over the same month of 2009.
The subgroup that enjoyed the greatest year-on-year increase was the manufacturing sector at 23.9 percent, while the second largest growth in this segment was seen in the mining sector with 9.1 percent. The utilities index soared by 6.7 percent in March over the same month of the previous year.
The calendar-adjusted industrial production index in March rose by 17.8 percent over the same month of 2009. The rise was 0.9 percent from February to March when calendar and seasonally adjusted.
Among the main industrial subgroups, the biggest rise was seen in the manufacture of capital goods, with a 35.3 percent increase in a year-on-year basis. The production of intermediary goods also rose by 28.5 percent during the same period and the production of durable goods by 27.7 percent.
Evaluating the TurkStat figures on a television program, Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün said on Monday the government is pleased with the results and expects to maintain this upward trend through the end of the year. “We are encouraged to see that a recovery from the crisis is reflecting on all subgroups of the Turkish manufacturing industry. When we examined the electricity consumption and export figures, we could see that the swift recuperation will continue in April as well.” The minister asserted that under these circumstances two-digit growth for the first quarter of 2010 was a strong possibility.
