EU upgrades Turkey’s growth forecast

BRUSSELS

The European Commission has revised up Turkey’s growth forecasts for 2016 and 2017 in a report released on Tuesday.

In its Spring 2016 Economic Forecast, the commission predicted Turkey to grow by 3.5 percent this year and 2017, both 0.1 percentage points higher than forecasts released in previous research.

The European Union is expected to grow 1.8 percent this year while the eurozone growth forecast was 1.6 percent.

Next year, the eurozone is estimated to expand slightly stronger than 2016 at 1.8 percent and EU growth is also expected pick up by an additional 0.1 percentage point.

With its forecasted 3.5 percent performance, Turkey will grow more than most EU countries except Ireland, Romania, Malta and Poland according to the report.

However, the report showed that the commission is less optimistic for global growth prospects this year and 2017, revising down both forecasts.

The commission had forecast global gross domestic product to expand at a pace of 3.1 percent this year and 3.4 percent in 2017 in previous data but later cut its 2016 forecast by 0.2 points and 2017 by 0.1 points.