Having released a report on the current state of Turkey’s construction industry, the Association of Turkish Building Material Producers (İMSAD) said despite the ongoing recuperation, growth in the construction sector is failing to meet the expectations. The sector should have expanded by two times the country’s economic growth in the first quarter.
Turkey’s economy grew by 11.7 percent in the first three months of the year over the same period of 2009. Growth in the construction sector in the same period stood at 8 percent. Turkey’s construction sector had shrunk by 18 percent in the first quarter of 2009 over the same months of the year before.
İMSAD President Orhan Turan said in the report on Tuesday that the construction sector’s first quarter growth remained below their expectations and that this sends negative signals about the future of the industry. Underlining that the construction sector is one of the major driving forces behind economic growth and employment in Turkey, the İMSAD president said new investments should be encouraged to keep the lights on in the sector.
Also asserting that the construction sector will play a major role in reducing Turkey’s current account deficit thanks to new investments with high value added, Turan called on the government to “develop special incentives” in a bid to compensate for losses and reach pre-crisis levels in the construction market.
