Soft landing in growth with 3,2 percent

The Turkish economy grew by 3.2 percent in the first quarter, marking an expected slowdown after spectacular expansion in the previous year, official data revealed yesterday. The growth was backed by external demand, while slowing domestic demand confirmed the economy is in a balancing process that will result in a soft landing. Output expanded by 3.2 percent in the first three months of 2012, pointing to a halving of the growth rate, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) showed. The calendar-adjusted gross domestic product in the first quarter increased by 2.3 percent compared to the same quarter of previous year, while seasonal and calendar-adjusted GDP increased by 0.2 percent compared to the previous quarter. "3.2 percent is a pretty good rate when you think about the financial crisis the European Union, our biggest trade partner, is caught up in," Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek told the Anatolia news agency. Simsek said the slowdown was not a surprise, but an "expected trend" due to challenges posed by the eurozone crisis. The energy industry recorded the highest growth at 8.4 percent. The mining and quarrying industry, which grew 10.8 percent in the first quarter of last year, was the only industry to register a contraction in the first quarter, shrinking 0.6 percent. The construction sector grew by a mere 2.8 percent after brilliant growth of 15.3 percent in 2011. "The first-quarter growth stemmed from exports," said Simsek, adding that private consumption, which constitutes almost 70 percent of the economy, made no contribution to growth, while net exports made about 4.5 points of contribution. "We can still say that 4 percent [the official growth target for this year] is reasonable, provided the European crisis does not deepen," he said.