Overview: The economic reforms that Turkey launched in 1980 continue to bring an impressive stream of benefits. The economy has grown steadily since the early 1980s, with real growth in per capita GDP increasing more than 6% annually. Agriculture remains the most important economic sector, employing about 60% of the labor force, accounting for almost 20% of GDP, and contributing about 25% to exports. Impressive growth in recent years has not solved all of the economic problems facing Turkey. Inflation and interest rates remain high, and a large budget deficit will continue to provide difficulties for a country undergoing a substantial transformation from a centrally controlled to a free market economy. The government has launched a multimillion-dollar development program in the southeastern region, which includes the building of a dozen dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to generate electric power and irrigate large tracts of farmland. The planned tapping of huge quantities of Euphrates water has raised serious concern in the downstream riparian nations of Syria and Iraq.

GDP: $62.6 billion, per capita $1,180; real growth rate 7.4% (1987 est.)

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 78% (1988)

Unemployment rate: 15.3% (1987)

Budget: revenues $10.16 billion; expenditures $12.01 billion, including capital expenditures of $2.17 billion (FY86)

Exports: $10.2 billion (f.o.b., 1987); @m5commodities--industrial products 70%, crops and livestock products 25%; @m5partners--FRG 19.4%, US 10.6%, Italy 7.8%, Iran 7.6%, Iraq 7.4%, Japan

Imports: $13.3 billion (c.i.f., 1987); @m5commodities--crude oil, machinery, transport equipment, metals, pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, rubber, mineral fuels, fertilizers, chemicals; @m5partners--FRG 15.9%, US 10.6%, Italy 7.8%, Iraq 6.9%, Japan 6.2%

External debt: $40.3 billion (1988)

Industrial production: growth rate 10% (1986)

Electricity: 13,402,000 kW capacity; 46,951 million kWh produced, 870 kWh per capita (1988)

Industries: textiles, food processing, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron minerals), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper

Agriculture: cotton, tobacco, cereals, sugar beets, fruits, nuts, livestock products; self-sufficient in food in most years; a legal producer of opium poppy for the pharmaceutical trade

Aid: NA

Currency: Turkish lira (plural--liras); 1 Turkish lira (TL) = 100 kurus

Exchange rates: Turkish liras (TL) per US$1--1,796.8 (December 1988), 1,422.3 (1988), 857.2 (1987), 674.5 (1986), 522.0 (1985)

Fiscal year: calendar year

NOTE: The information regarding Turkey on this page is re-published from the 1989 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Turkey Economy 1989 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Turkey Economy 1989 should be addressed to the CIA.