Turkish economy beats expectations, expands 7% in Q1

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's economy expanded 7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 amid economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the country's statistical authority on Monday.

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) at current prices increased 29.1% to 1.4 trillion Turkish liras ($188.6 billion) in the January-March period, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

A panel of 21 economists polled by Anadolu Agency on Friday had projected that the Turkish economy would grow 6.4% on average in the January-March period, hovering between 5% and 7.2%.

Amid the pandemic, Turkey was one of the rare countries where negative growth did not occur and its economy grew by 1.8% in 2020.