The Goldman Sachs Group, in a recent analysis of the Turkish economy, said that economic activity had picked up pace and that it had raised its general economic growth predictions for Turkey for 2011 and 2012 accordingly. Goldman Sachs also increased its previous growth forecast of 8.1 percent for 2011 to 8.5 percent. In addition, the growth rate for 2013 is anticipated to be 4.5 percent in the analysis.
According to the analysis, the central bank is expected to bring the current maximum lending rate of 12.5 percent down to 10 percent in the second quarter of 2012 and the cost of funding is estimated to be around 6 to 7 percent for 2012.
Goldman Sachs changed its exchange rate prediction of TL 1.90 per dollar, forecasting that the dollar/TL exchange rate would be TL 1.75 over the next three months, TL 1.80 in six months and TL 1.85 in a year.
Speaking in an interview in January, Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chairman Jim O'Neill, who coined the term “BRIC” to refer to Brazil, Russia, India and China and also added Korea, Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia to his list of the top eight high-growth economies, said, “Their aggregate dollar [gross domestic product] GDP will be probably double that of Europe and the US put together in the next year,” and added that “İstanbul, in my opinion, [is] arguably the most exciting city in this whole European-Middle Eastern-Africa time zone.”
