Turkey's Gross National Product (GNP) was at 203 billion dollars in 2002, with a per capita income of about 3,000 U.S. dollars.
Turkey's economy has shown continuous high growth since the 1990s, except for the years 1994, 1999, and 2001, when it showed a negative growth rate due to the effects of the economic crisis and the major earthquakes. Turkey is currently ranked among the top ten emerging market countries in the world. The shares of services, industry and agriculture in the economy are 63.9%, 21.8% and 14.3% of GDP respectively (1999). The service industry is more developed in tourism, banking and construction; industry is more backward, with incomplete industrial sectors, low production technology and technical level, except for the garment industry, which is more developed; agriculture is dominated by the production of wheat, cotton, olive, tobacco, tea and legumes, and the level of mechanization is not high.
Trade: Turkey's foreign trade amounted to 67.279 billion U.S. dollars in 1999 and 81.307 billion U.S. dollars in 2000, of which 27.324 billion U.S. dollars were exported and 53.983 billion U.S. dollars were imported, with a deficit of 26.658 billion U.S. dollars, representing an increase of 20.86%, 2.77%, and 32.66%, respectively, over the previous year. From the figures, the Turkish foreign trade has a relatively large increase, but mainly imports increased more, the deficit further expanded.
Import and export commodities: the main products of Turkey's exports are industrial manufactured goods accounted for 89.4%, mainly garments, steel, electromechanical products, boilers, means of transportation, etc.; agricultural products accounted for 9%, mainly fruits/dried fruits, etc., and mineral products accounted for 1.4%.
Among the top ten exporting countries, eight are OECD countries, with OECD countries accounting for 67.8 percent of Turkish exports, and member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) accounting for 14.9 percent, followed by the CIS countries. In order of countries, they are Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Russia and Israel. China ranked outside the top 15.
The main problem facing Turkish exports is a single export market and a high dependence on individual markets. As part of its export policy, Turkey will vigorously develop the garment, electronic and electrical products, automobile and spare parts, steel, food, information, ceramics and other industries.
Import: In the past 20 years, Turkey's imports have grown rapidly. From 7.9 billion U.S. dollars in 1980 to 45.9 billion U.S. dollars in 1998, imports have increased nearly six times. Among the imported products, capital goods accounted for 21.5%, 65.3% of intermediate products and 12.4% of consumer goods; in terms of major categories, agricultural and mineral products accounted for 14.6% and manufactured products accounted for 85.3%.
The top ten importing countries are Germany, Italy, France, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, China and South Korea.
Since Turkey's resources are not very rich, the manufacturing industry is not very developed, energy, capital goods, consumer goods, electrical appliances, etc. need to be imported, Turkey's imports continue to grow will continue to exist for a long time, and there will be no significant improvement in the situation of the huge foreign trade deficit.
Turkey is located in Europe and Asia at the junction of the three sides of the sea, geographically advantageous location, the West can touch the Balkans, the East can be radiated to the Middle East and Central Asia, the North can be connected to Ukraine through the Black Sea and the former Eastern Europe, the South can be connected to North Africa through the Mediterranean Sea. It is closely connected with Europe in terms of political and economic relations, and after becoming a member of the European Customs Union in January 1996, the total trade with the EU has accounted for more than 50% of its total imports and exports, and at the same time, it has created favorable conditions for the products of other countries to enter Europe through Turkey; due to its special relations with the five Central Asian countries in history, it has become a leader of the countries of the region in terms of political and economic relations; in addition, the total trade with In addition, the total trade volume with Russia has reached 10 billion dollars, and to some extent the economic situation in Russia has become a barometer of the Turkish economy.
Turkey, which is currently ranked 16th in the world in terms of economic power, aims to become one of the top ten economies in the world and a financial, trade, manufacturing and export center at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. In order to achieve this goal and to integrate with the European economy as early as possible, in recent years the Turkish government has been vigorously advocating the acceleration of infrastructure construction and has formulated guidelines and policies oriented towards the development of energy, transportation and telecommunication.
In the field of electricity, it is planned that seven power stations with a total installed capacity of 900,000 kilowatts will be put into operation by the year 2003; thirty-five hydro, thermal, electric, and wind power stations with a total installed capacity of 8,000,000 kilowatts are expected to be put into operation between the years 2005 and 2010; and 152 power stations of various types with a total installed capacity of 14,211,400,000,000 kilowatts will be put into operation in the year 2020 as well.
In terms of transportation, taking railroads as an example, the Turkish side is determined to gradually electrify, signal and automate communications on its nearly 10,000 kilometers of existing lines. At the same time, the Turkish side hopes to utilize foreign investment to build five or six new trunk lines. Among the renovation projects, an international tender has begun for the Ankara-Istanbul 500-kilometer railroad speed-up project with a total investment of about US$250 million, and it is reported that world-renowned large companies have flocked to compete for the project. In addition, the Channel Railway Tunnel Project with an investment of nearly $700 million and the Istanbul Suburban Railway Renovation Project, which will total $2.6 billion with a loan from Japan's OECF, are also on the agenda.
In the area of telecommunications, the presence of world-famous companies in Turkey is an indication of the huge potential of this market. According to the statistics of the relevant departments, by the end of 1999, the annual sales of computers and communication products for 2.5 billion to 3 billion U.S. dollars, *** sale of 550,000 units of computers, Internet users amounted to 770,000 households; as of the end of 1999, the number of users of mobile telephones reached 7.5 million, with an average annual growth rate of 30% -40%, an expert predicts that, by 2005, the Internet in Turkey will reach 17 million users, computers per capita, and the number of users will reach 17 million, and the average annual growth rate of 30% -40%. To reach 17 million households, the per capita share of computers will reach 5%, the number of cell phone users will reach 30 million, cell phones and wired phones per capita share will reach 37%, which shows that Turkey's telecom market is promising and has great potential.
Currently, Turkey is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, and its trade volume is relatively high among developing countries, ranking 33rd in competitiveness in 1998. With 70 percent of its population being young people under the age of 30 and a literacy rate of 82 percent, it is the greatest natural resource of the 21st century and a country full of promise. Despite the sometimes unsatisfactory policies implemented by the Government, Turkey was a country with great potential and dynamism. Due to frequent crises, the government and the people are experienced in resolving them, and the accession to the European Customs Union in 1996 has made foreign investors feel more secure and have more possibilities to enter the Turkish market. 1998, a survey initiated by the FRASER Institute in Canada and the CATO Institute in the United States, in cooperation with institutions in 80 countries, evaluated the economic freedom indexes of 120 countries around the world and found that Turkey was the most liberalized country in the world. The index was evaluated and Turkey was ranked 60th, with freedom of currency use [34th] at the top, economic structure and markets at 50th, exchange of capital and financial markets at 60th, and monetary policy and price stability at 115th at the bottom.