TÜSİAD Chief Economist Talks About Growth Prospects

TÜSİAD Chief Economist Gizem Öztok Altınsaç made statements about growth expectations. Altınsaç stated that tourism and consumption are doing well, but investments are being negatively suppressed.

Gizem Öztok Altınsaç, Lecturer at Özyeğin University and Chief Economist of TÜSİAD, evaluated the growth prospects. Öztok Altınsaç emphasized that 6.5 percent growth in the first quarter and 3 percent growth forecasts for the whole year, while underlining that the consumption side is doing well, and that if there is an improvement in wages in July, a new consumption demand will be realized in the third quarter of the year. Stating that the growth in the first quarter will mainly come from consumption and that the contribution of export performance will not be as severe as expected, economist Öztok Altınsaç said: “The composition of growth is important, we are growing with consumption in the first quarter. With April and May, retail weakens, we will see this in the second quarter. I do not think that the contribution of export performance will be very strong in the first quarter, which will come from main consumption. We calculate that the main factor that will reduce growth will be the negative contribution of investments.” Expressing that the investments will be a little more suppressed, Altınsaç said that the growth will proceed in a composition similar to that in the first quarter, throughout the year. Öztok Altınsaç pointed out that the support of tourism is also positive; "Tourism is going very well, for example, Istanbul figures are better than 2019, and Antalya figures are not bad."