Turkish pm: Turkey on top of OECD countries in growth rate

ANKARA (A.A) - 05.04.2011 - Prime Minister & chairman of ruling Justice & Development (AK) Party Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey was on top of European and OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development) countries in the aspect of growth rate.
Speaking at his party's group meeting at Parliament on Tuesday, Erdogan said that Turkish economy, with 9.2 percent, caught the third biggest growth rate in the world after China and Singapore in the last quarter of 2010. He added that the growth rate was posted as 8.9 percent in 2010.
Noting that Turkey's national income was posted as 736 billion USD, Erdogan said that national income per capita was 10,079 USD.
Erdogan said that the ratio of public net debt stock to gross national product, which was 61.4 percent in 2002, dropped to 28.7 percent in 2010 despite the global economic crisis. 
Turkey's statistical board, TurkStat, announced on Monday that the consumer prices were up 3.99 percent in March 2011.     
The board said the consumer prices index (CPI) climbed 0.42 percent and the rise in producer prices index (PPI) was 1.22 percent in the mentioned month.     
The annual inflation was up 3.99 percent in CPI and 10.08 percent in PPI in March.     
The three-month rise in CPI was 1.57 percent and 5.40 percent in PPI.     
According to 12-month average, the annual inflation was 7.29 percent in consumer prices, and 9.36 percent in producer prices.     
The market's consumer prices index (CPI) expectation for March was 0.65-0.75 percent, and it was 1.30 percent in producer prices index (PPI).
When compared with the same month of the previous year, the CPI rose 8.01 percent in restaurants and hotels, 7.86 percent in goods and services, 6.91 percent in transportation and 5.43 percent in clothing and shoes.
CPI fell 4.17 percent year-on-year in communication, 2.19 percent in entertainment and culture and 1.49 percent in alcohol beverages and tobacco.
PPI was up 1.22 percent month-on-month, 10.08 percent year-on-year and 9.36 percent in 12-month average in March 2011.
Turkey has become the fastest growing economy in Europe with recently announced 8.9 percent growth rate achieved in 2010 and the rate put Turkey also on the third spot among G20 countries.
Last week, TurkStat made public the Q4-2010 gross domestic product figures, and said Turkey grew 9.2 percent in the last quarter of 2010.
Thus, the authority, said Turkey grew for five quarters successively.
Turkey surpassed its growth target of 6.8 percent in the medium-term program, and grew 8.9 percent in 2010.
The national income per capita was 10,079 USD in 2010. It was 8,590 USD in 2009 and 10,440 USD in 2008 before the global economic crisis.
Turkey started to stagnate as of the last quarter of 2008 due to global economic crisis, and shrank in the three quarters of 2009. It entered into growth trend in the last quarter of 2009.
Turkey grew 5.9 percent in the last quarter of 2009, 12 percent in Q1 of 2010, 10.3 percent in Q2 of 2010 and 5.2 percent in Q3 of 2010.
The Gross Domestic Product in current prices was 735.8 billion USD in 2010. It was 616.8 billion USD in 2009.
The construction industry grew 17.1 percent in 2010. Fishery and manufacturing, wholesale and retail industries followed construction industry.