ISTANBUL

Turkey has left the worst behind on the road to growth this year, according to Turkey’s treasury and finance minister. 

"The negative 3 percent growth rate in the last quarter of 2018 occurred as was expected," Berat Albayrak tweeted on Monday.

He stressed: "We started a reduction of inflation and the current deficit in this period when we provided internal and external balance."

Despite the narrowing in the last quarter, the positive contribution of net external demand to growth by 9.7 percent was an important sign for the balancing process, he said.

"We believe that Turkey will continue to grow in 2019 as expected under the new economic program, due to positive developments in the financial markets, the downward trend in inflation, the improvements in leading indicators, steps taken in access to finance, and the mobilization of employment," he underlined.

Actual data for 2019 shows the economy has started a rapid recovery and the slowdown in growth reflects a temporary situation, he stressed.

He added that rising exports and tourism revenues will be the main engines of growth.

He also said: "Under the new economic program, we will continue to implement policies which reduce the current deficit, raise the public welfare, and boost value-added production."

The Turkish economy grew by 2.6 percent in 2018 and shrank by 3 percent in the last quarter of 2018, on an annual basis, the Turkish Statistical Institute announced on Monday.

Turkey aims to reach economic growth of 2.3 percent this year, 3.5 percent in 2020, and 5 percent by 2021 under its new economic program announced last September.