Turkish PM: Growth rate to surpass 6 pct by end of 2017

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said Tuesday that Turkey's growth rate would surpass 6 percent by the end of the year.

In his Justice and Development (AK) Party's parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, Yildirim said Turkey's growth rate had surpassed 5 percent in the first half of the year despite the fight against terrorism.

"At the end of this year, our growth rate will reach a rate over 6 percent and near 7 percent," said Yildirim.

Turkey's annual growth rates were 6.1 percent in 2015 and 3.2 percent last year. The Turkish economy expanded beyond expectations in the first (5.2 percent) and second (5.1 percent) quarters of 2017, according to Turkstat.

The Turkish government aims to drop inflation to 5 percent in 2020. It was 8.5 percent in 2016, and is predicted to be 9.5 percent by the end of 2017, in accordance with the country's medium-term program announced on Sept. 27.