|
Turkey Facts: [Introduction - Home Page] Turkish Cities: [Istanbul] [Ankara] Turkey Pictures: [Gallery 1] [Gallery 2] [Gallery 3]
[Gallery 4] [Gallery 5] |
|
__________ |
Turkey (Turkie)V. Economy A. Overview Turkey’s economy has experienced considerable industrialization and modernization since the establishment of the republic in 1923, and especially since the end of World War II (1939-1945). Turkey is among the most advanced of the developing nations, but it remains poorer than most European countries. Turkey is still strongly agricultural, and farming remains the occupation of about 34 percent of the population. However, Turkey’s economy is undergoing a structural transformation in which manufacturing, commercial agriculture, construction, and the service industries have expanded steadily while the role of traditional subsistence agriculture has declined. Historically, the Turkish government has had extensive influence over the economy and has controlled a variety of key industries. In setting as a goal the creation of a modern European state, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk emphasized the government’s responsibility for building the national economy. In practice, this meant the government made major investments in infrastructure, including dams, electricity grids, port facilities, railways, and roads. The government also developed strategically important industries, including steel and weapons production. During the 1920s, government intervention helped stimulate economic growth after a period of stagnation and decline. The economic problems of the time resulted directly from Turkey’s disastrous involvement in World War I on the losing side, a subsequent war of independence against occupation by the Allied victors, and massive population movements that accompanied these conflicts. World War II interrupted Turkey’s drive for development and made it difficult to acquire the machinery and other goods needed for industrialization. After the war, the effort resumed with outside financial and technical assistance, notably from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. With foreign aid, Turkey created a national highway network linking previously isolated regions and facilitating the movement of goods and people. Major investments were also made in electricity production, coal mining, and irrigation, and new textile, sugar, and cement factories opened. During the 1950s the economy expanded rapidly, although economic growth was uneven. By the early 1950s, concerns about economic stability and growth had prompted some Turks to question the government’s active role in the economy. Two major views about the government’s appropriate role have emerged since then. Groups on the political right have maintained that government intervention should be limited to oversight of national economic policy and to promoting private investment. Groups on the left, however, have argued for a broad, proactive government role to protect the interests of the public and the nation. Differences between these two views narrowed after 1980 when a political consensus emerged that Turkey should join the European Community (EC), a predecessor of the European Union (EU). Political leaders supporting membership recognized that Turkey would first need to implement economic reforms to make Turkey’s economy more similar to the economies of other EU countries. Specifically, this meant privatization of major state-owned industries, including national monopolies in communications. Following the adoption of economic reforms in the early 1980s that favored private business and exports, private enterprise expanded, and large private businesses developed in broadcasting, publishing, food processing, mining, steel, and textiles. Many of these businesses were export-oriented; by the early 1990s, Turkey had become an important exporter of manufactured products, notably textiles, steel, cement, and processed foods. Nevertheless, Turkey’s first application for EU membership in 1987 was rejected because privatization and other structural economic reforms were deemed incomplete. Further reforms followed. By 1995 Turkey’s progress toward privatization was sufficiently impressive that the EU agreed to form a customs union with Turkey. As a condition for full membership, however, the EU also called for political reforms that would bring Turkey’s democratic practices up to the standards of other EU member states. In 1997 the EU presented Turkey with a list of specific political reforms that were required for Turkey to become an official EU membership candidate. Turkey’s failure to gain quick EU acceptance produced disappointment within the country. At the same time, a period of political instability followed military intervention in the political process in 1997. These factors combined to depress Turkey’s economy, which was already hampered by budget deficits and decades of high double-digit annual inflation rates. Consequently, in 1999 Turkey applied for and received an economic stabilization loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Austerity measures demanded of Turkey by the IMF led to the loss of 1.5 million jobs within two years. A second IMF loan in 2001, a period in which Turkey experienced its worst economic performance in decades, brought Turkey’s total IMF debt to $31 billion, making it one of the largest recipients ever of IMF credit. Turkey’s successful implementation of the IMF-backed austerity measures, including important progress in reducing inflation, prompted the IMF in late 2004 to extend more loans to the country. The new three-year deal allocated an additional $10 billion to fund the overhaul of Turkey’s tax collection system and further reforms in social security and banking. Turkey’s improving economy permitted the government to introduce a revalued currency, called the new Turkish lira (Yeni Türk Lirası, or YTL) in January 2005. The new currency dropped six zeroes from the old Turkish lira (TL) in a million-to-one conversion. Turkey’s government hoped the new currency would boost international trade, which frequently involved trillions of old lira, and would underscore Turkey’s seriousness in meeting the economic requirements of EU membership. B. National Output Turkey’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2004 was $302.8 billion. Some 22 percent of the GDP was contributed by industry, 13 percent by agriculture, and 65 percent by government and private services. C. Labor The domestic Turkish labor force included 26.5 million economically active persons in 2004. Of those, 34 percent were employed in agriculture, forestry, and fishing; 43 percent held jobs in service industries; and 23 percent worked in industry. In 1999 about 1.2 million Turkish citizens were employed abroad, especially in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and France; annual remittances from emigrant workers totaled about $4.6 million. The main labor organizations were the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions, with about 1.7 million members, and the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey. D. Agriculture Since 1950, Turkey’s agricultural output has increased through the use of more machinery and fertilizer and more productive plant varieties. Turkey is one of a handful of countries in the world that produces an overall surplus of foods. The diversity of climates in Turkey allows many specialty crops to be grown, including tea, figs, and silk. Cereals and livestock are raised on the Anatolian Plateau. In this region most farmers own some of the land they cultivate, and large landholdings are the exception. Cereals—including wheat, barley, and maize—and livestock together account for about two-thirds of Turkey’s total agricultural output. In areas where irrigation is possible, a broader range of crops is grown, including cotton, sugar beets, grapes, and other fruits. The livestock industry is of special significance in the mountainous eastern provinces. Sheep are the main livestock, and Turkey produces more wool than any other country in Europe. Cattle provide milk, meat, and hides, and are used as draft animals. Goats, horses, donkeys, water buffalo, and camels are also raised. The long silky hair of Angora goats, called mohair, is used to make a soft yarn. In the more fertile coastal areas, especially in the Aegean and Mediterranean region, large landholdings worked with hired labor are common. In these areas, important export crops such as cotton and tobacco are raised, as well as olives, grapes, figs, and many other varieties of fruits. Cotton is also widely grown on the Adana Plain. The intensively cultivated Black Sea coastlands produce tobacco, tea, hazelnuts, sugar beets, potatoes, and other vegetables and fruits. E. Forestry and Fishing Although 13 percent of Turkey’s area is classified as forested, lumbering is relatively unimportant. Only about one-third of the forested area has commercial value. The remainder produces shrub and brush useful primarily as a fuel. Nearly all of Turkey’s forests are owned and managed by the government. In 2004, 15.8 million cubic meters (558 million cubic feet) of timber was cut. About one-eighth was sawed into lumber; most of the rest was used as fuel. The fish catch in 2001 was 594,971 metric tons; most of the fish came from the Mediterranean and Black seas. Anchovies generally make up the bulk of the catch, which is relatively small. Sardines, mullet, mackerel, and whiting are also caught. F. Mining Turkey maintains an important place in world mineral production. The country is among the world’s leaders in the production of chromium ore and boron. Large deposits of iron ore are worked in the country’s northeastern area. Fossil fuel extraction in southeastern Turkey is used primarily to meet domestic demands; in 2004 Turkey produced 16.5 million barrels of petroleum, 560 million cubic meters (19.8 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, and 48.2 million metric tons of coal. Most of the coal was low-grade lignite, which is mined in many areas, although some amounts of higher-grade coal were extracted. Other mineral products included copper, bauxite, manganese, antimony, lead, zinc, and sulfur. Northwestern Anatolia is the world’s top producer of meerschaum, a fine white clay used for making tobacco pipes. G. Manufacturing Turkey’s leading manufactured products in the early 2000s included textiles, automobiles, iron and steel, cement, processed food, paper, tobacco products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, leather products, glassware, and refined petroleum and petroleum products. The major food-processing industry is the production of sugar from sugar beets. İstanbul, İzmir, Adana, and Bursa were the most important manufacturing centers. H. Energy In 2003 Turkey produced 133.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. Thermal plants burning fossil fuels produced 74 percent of the electricity, and 26 percent came from hydroelectric facilities, including a large plant on the Euphrates River near Elâzığ. Turkey is in the process of building a massive hydroelectric project called the Southeast Anatolia Project, or GAP (the acronym for its Turkish name). The project, involving construction of 22 dams and 19 power plants along the Euphrates, is scheduled for completion in 2005. The centerpiece of GAP, the Atatürk Dam, was completed in 1990. I. Currency and Banking The monetary unit of Turkey is the new Turkish lira (YTL), divided into 100 new kurus. The devalued YTL was introduced on January 1, 2005, and replaced the old Turkish lira (TL, to remain legal tender until the end of 2005). Due to chronically high inflation rates since the 1970s, the TL had experienced a severe depreciation in value, with one million TL equal to approximately U.S. $0.75 cents in late 2004. The devaluation of the YTL, which followed Turkey’s success in reducing inflation, dropped six zeroes from the old TL in a million-to-one conversion. The devaluation required Turkey to begin minting a new kurus, as the old kurus had been dropped years ago due to inflation. The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, founded in 1930, is the bank of issue. The country also has many state banks concerned with economic development, such as the Agriculture Bank of the Republic of Turkey, founded in 1863, and several commercial banks. Turkey’s principal stock exchange is in İstanbul. J. Foreign Trade Foreign trade is an increasingly important part of Turkey’s economy. Until recent decades, agricultural products were the most important exports, followed by minerals and other raw materials. Industrialization in Turkey, especially since the end of World War II, has provided a new source of exports. The cost of Turkey’s annual imports is usually much higher than earnings from exports; in 2003 imports totaled $69.3 billion and exports $47.3 billion. The principal exports were textiles, iron and steel, cement, dried fruits, leather garments, and tobacco. Chief imports were machinery, crude petroleum, transportation vehicles, and chemical products. Considerable income is derived from tourism in Turkey; in 2004 some 16.8 million foreigners spent an estimated $15.9 billion in the country. Turkey’s chief trading partners for exports, in order of importance, are Germany (accounting for one-quarter of all purchases), Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. Principal sources of imports, in order of importance, are Germany, Italy, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia. K. Transportation Turkey has 8,697 km (5,404 mi) of railroad track, all of which is operated by the Turkish Republic State Railways. The country also is served by 354,421 km (220,227 mi) of roads. In 2003 there were 66 passenger cars in use for every 1,000 residents. The leading ports of Turkey are İstanbul and İzmir; other important ports include Trabzon, Giresun, Samsun, and Zonguldak, on the Black Sea, and İskenderun and Mersin (İçel) in the south. The national airline, Turkish Airlines, provides domestic and foreign service; major international airports serve İstanbul, Ankara, Adana, Antalya, and İzmir. L. Communications Turkey had about 30 major daily newspapers in the early 2000s, in addition to many dailies with small circulations. Larger dailies include Bugün, Cumhuriyet, Hürriyet, Milliyet, Sabah, Yeni Günaydin, and Zaman—all published in İstanbul. The country is also served by many weekly and monthly publications. The government runs four national radio networks and five television channels; there are also many privately owned radio and television stations. In 2000 there were 562 licensed radio receivers and 443 licensed television sets in use for every 1,000 residents. Telephone lines numbered 267 per 1,000 people in 2004.
"Turkey," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2006 |
__________ |
|
All photographs, images, and information presented on this website are the copyright of their respective owners and are published here with their permission. Images
©
McCarty Company LLC
and it's licensors picturesfromturkey ™ and picturesfromturkey.com™ Copyright © 2006 to present McCarty Company LLCAll rights reserved McCarty Company LLC, PO Box 23185, Overland Park, KS 66283-0185 Visit all our informational websites:
exZOOberance,
Art of Leadership,
Pictures from Turkey, |
