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Background Turkey
Present-day Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. Soon thereafter, the country instituted secular laws to replace traditional religious fiats. In 1945 Turkey joined the UN, and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to protect Turkish Cypriots and prevent a Greek takeover of the island; the northern 37 percent of the island remains under Turkish Cypriot control. Relations between the two countries remain strained, but have begun to improve over the past few years. In 1984, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a Marxist-Leninist, separatist group, initiated an insurgency in southeast Turkey, often using terrorist tactics to try to attain its goal of an independent Kurdistan. The group - whose leader, Abdullah OCALAN, was captured in Kenya in February 1999 - has observed a unilateral cease-fire since September 1999, although there have been occasional clashes between Turkish military units and some of the 4,000-5,000 armed PKK militants, most of whom currently are encamped in northern Iraq. The PKK changed its name to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress (KADEK) in April 2002.
Economy - overview
Turkey's dynamic economy is a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that in 2001 still accounted for 40% of employment. It has a strong and rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication. The most important industry - and largest exporter - is textiles and clothing, which is almost entirely in private hands. In recent years the economic situation has been marked by erratic economic growth and serious imbalances.
Real GNP growth has exceeded 6% in many years, but this strong expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 1994, 1999, and 2001. Meanwhile, the public sector fiscal deficit has regularly exceeded 10% of GDP - due in large part to the huge burden of interest payments, which account for more than 50% of central government spending. Inflation, in recent years in the high double-digit range, fell to 26% in 2003. Perhaps because of these problems, foreign direct investment in Turkey remains low - less than $1 billion annually. In late 2000 and early 2001 a growing trade deficit and serious weaknesses in the banking sector plunged the economy into crisis - forcing Turkey to float the lira and pushing the country into recession. Results in 2002-03 were much better, because of strong financial support from the IMF and tighter fiscal policy. Continued slow global growth and serious political tensions in the Middle East could result in negative growth in 2004.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $489.7 billion (2002 est.)
GDP - real growth rate: 7.8% (2002 est.)
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $7,300 (2002 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 12.9%
industry: 30.4%
services: 56.7% (2001)
Population below poverty line: NA%
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 2.3%
highest 10%: 32.3% (1994)
Distribution of family income - Gini index: 41.5 (1994)
Inflation rate (consumer prices): 45.2% (2002 est.)
Labor force: 23.8 million
note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad (2001 3rd quarter)
Labor force - by occupation:
agriculture 39.7%
services 37.9%
industry 22.4% (3rd quarter, 2001)
Unemployment rate: 10.8% (plus underemployment of 6.1%) (2002 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $42.4 billion
expenditures: $69.1 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA (2001)
Industries:
textiles, food processing, autos, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper
Industrial production growth rate: 8.5% (2002 est.)
Electricity - production: 116.6 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 79.3%
hydro: 20.4%
other: 0.3% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption: 112.6 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports: 433 million kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports: 4.579 billion kWh (2001)
Oil - production: 48,000 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption: 619,500 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports: 46,110 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - imports: 616,500 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - proved reserves: 288.4 million bbl (37257)
Natural gas - production: 312 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption: 15.94 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports: 0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports: 15.75 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves: 8.685 billion cu m (37257)
Agriculture - products:
tobacco, cotton, grain, olives, sugar beets, pulse, citrus; livestock
Exports: $35.1 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Exports - commodities:
apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal manufactures, transport equipment
Exports - partners (2002):
Germany 16.6%
US 9.2%
UK 8.5%
Italy 6.4%
France 6%
Imports: $50.8 billion c.i.f. (2002 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods, fuels, transport equipment
Imports - partners (2002):
Germany 13.7%, Italy 8.1%, Russia 7.6%, US 6%, France 5.9%, UK 4.8%, Switzerland 4.1%
Debt - external: $118.3 billion (Yearend 2001)
Economic aid - recipient: ODA, $300 million (2000)
Currency: Turkish lira (TRL)
Currency code: TRL
Exchange rates:
NA (2002), 1,225,590 (2001), 625,218 (2000), 418,783 (1999), 260,724 (1998), 151,865 (1997)
Fiscal year: calendar year
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