Turkey’s industrial output surprises in January
Turkey's State Institute of Statistics (DIE) disclosed that the country's industrial output rose 6.8% year-on-year in January 2005.
Economists had been expecting a 3.6% decline in January industrial output due to the seasonality in January, flat exports and weak capacity utilization rate in the
manufacturing industry.
In January, the increase in the
production of non-metallic products drove
production figures higher. The motor vehicles, the main driver of the industrial
production in 2004, rose 3.1% year-on-year in the first month of 2005, signaling the slow down in this sector.
Overall, mining output rose 16% year-on-year in January while
manufacturing industry output increased 7.1%. In addition, some domestic oriented sectors have performed extremely strong. Food and beverages output jumped 18.6%, chemicals output by 13.2% and machinery and equipment output by 19.3%.
The rise in industrial
production is expected to continue in February as well, as a result of base-year effect and seasonality.