Ankara- The European Union has expected the Turkish economy to grow by 2.8% in 2017, and 3.2% by 2018. In its “Winter 2017 Economic Forecast”, the European Commission said that the popular referendum on the constitutional amendments in Turkey on April 16 will ease the political confusion dominating the country and increase demand in the local market during H2 of 2017.
The report noted that unemployment rate in Turkey will reach 11.2% in 2017, and 11.5% in 2018. As per rates of economic growth in the Euro Zone and the European Union, the report expected it to hit 1.6% this year, and 1.8% in 2018, while reaching 1.8% in the European Union in 2017-2018.
In the same context, the deficit in Turkey has reached USD4.27 billion in December 2016, compared to USD5.07 billion in the same period in 2016.
Exports of fresh fruits and vegetables in Turkey rose by 52.2% in January 2017 reaching around USD41 million, compared to the same period of 2016.
On the other hand, representatives of around 50 important Turkish tourism companies interested in Arab tourists visited Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to cooperate with their Saudi counterparts.
Head of the Association of Turkish Tourism Companies Hassan Biram said their visit to Saudi Arabia aims to support the campaign launched by President Recep Tayyib Erdogan to develop tourism.
He added that they aim at promoting their campaign among the GCC countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE.
Biram noted that over the past years, Turkey received loads of tourists from these countries, with more than two million tourists from the GCC.
On Erdogan’s visits to Arab and Gulf countries, Biram said that it was a positive step, highlighting the 20% surge in the number of tourists coming from these countries following Erdogan visits.
For his part, Ahmed Kirk, head of the Association for Arab tourism Companies and Development of Turkish Tourism said that they will partake in the Jeddah International Trade Fair (JITF), which has kicked off on Wednesday, and look forward to increase the number of tourists visiting Turkey to five million in 2017.