December jobless rate down to 11.4 pct

Turkey's unemployment rate fell to 11.4 percent in December 2010, down 2.1 points year-on-year, indicating stable economic growth. The number of jobless was down by 432,000 in December compared to the same month in 2009, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) said on Tuesday. The economy grew 11.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, followed by 10.3 percent growth in the second quarter and 5.5 percent in the third, all year-on-year. The TurkStat figures show that Turkey's labor force grew to 22.67 million in December, a rise of 1.2 million year-on-year. "We will see declining unemployment in 2011," Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergun told the Anatolia news agency.