President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the Turkish economy is in a “temporary crisis,” which he said will soon be overcome.

Speaking at a rally in Kocaeli, Erdogan said the economy made a breakthrough in past years but the national income has recently decreased to $800 billion.

“The current temporary crisis in the economy will be overcome. Although [financial] analysis companies put [forth] different targets, Turkey will continue its [economic] progress,” he said. Erdogan's statement is the first official statement describing the current state of the economy as a crisis.


This is the first time the much-debated rumors of economic crisis in the country are being acknowledged by the most senior political figure in Turkey. Fifty-three percent of Turks consider economic issues to be their primary concern ahead of the upcoming June 7 general election according to a recent survey conducted by research company Ipsos. Opposition parties have been shaping their election manifestos based on remedies for economic troubles.

Economic growth, a pillar of the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) electoral strength over the past decade, is flagging, economic data indicate. Turkey's economic growth fell short of the government's target in 2014, while the country's gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell, official data showed on Tuesday. GDP growth slowed to 2.9 percent in 2014 from 4.2 percent the preceding year, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) showed earlier this month, signaling a major headache for AK Party, which has had a solid record on the economy since coming to power in 2002 and is aiming for a sweeping victory in this year's elections.

Turkey's statistics agency announced on Monday last week that the unemployment rate rose from 10.9 percent in December to 11.3 percent in January, the highest since April 2010. Turkey's unemployment rate is on course to surpass 11 percent in 2015 and is likely to hover around that level in the following year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said last week. Concern about the political and economic outlook pushed the lira to a record low of 2.7104 against the dollar last week, bringing losses this year to around 13 percent.

(Source: Today Zaman)