Turkey to grow 6.9 percent in Q1: Survey

By Erhan Cihan Unal

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish economy is expected to grow 6.9 percent in the first quarter this year, according to a panel of economists polled by Anadolu Agency on Friday.

A group of 19 experts questioned by Anadolu Agency made this estimation ahead of Monday’s announcement of the first quarter's GDP by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

The average growth expectation of economists for the first quarter of the year was 6.9 percent. Economists surveyed had the highest growth expectation of 8 percent and the lowest growth expectation of 6 percent for the Q1.

The highest growth forecast for the first quarter of this year was 8 percent, while the lowest was 6 percent.

The survey also revealed that the median of the estimates for the year-end growth in 2018 was 4.7 percent, with the highest forecast at 5.5 percent and the lowest at 4 percent.

The World Bank has forecasted the Turkish economy will grow to 4.5 percent in 2018, according to its Global Economic Prospects report for June 2018.

Turkish economy -- the fastest growing economy among G20 countries -- grew 7.4 percent in 2017, compared to the previous year.

* Jeyhun Aliyev contributed to this story from Ankara