Turkey’s industrial growth loses momentum in April
Turkey's State Institute of Statistics disclosed that the country's April industrial output fell short of expectations, rising only 5.1% year on year.
A strong mining output increase of 26.9% contributed to the overall gain. On the other hand,
manufacturing output saw a modest rise of 4.2%.
A sharp contraction in textile and ready-to-wear output caused industrial output growth to come in below market expectations. April output of textiles dropped off 23.6%, while ready-to-wear output fell 15.2%. Strong competition from
China was cited as a major reason for the decline.
Furthermore, the
automotive sector saw output rise 7.9%. While that is above the industry average for April, it is a significant drop from the 50% year-on-year increase experienced in April 2004.
Other sectors recording gains in output include chemicals (10.5%), rubber (24.7%) and metallic goods (47%).
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, 2005 first quarter industrial output was revised from 8.2% down to 6.2%. Thus, first quarter GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is expected to fall short of 5%.
Furthermore, the benign domestic demand coupled with the moderation in export performance as a result of the economic slowdown in some of the Turkish export markets and sectoral difficulties like those in the textile sector may underpin the modest pace of economic growth.