ANKARA: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) more than doubled its 2017 economic growth forecast for Turkey from 2.5 percent to 5.1 percent, the fund said on Tuesday. During its World Economic Outlook conference in Washington, the IMF also forecast a growth of 3.5 percent in 2018 for Turkey, adding that the revised outlook also raised forecasts for emerging and developing economies in Europe. “This change is driven to an important extent by the revision to Turkey’s growth in 2017 to 5.1 percent, reflecting a stronger-than-expected outturn in the first quarter of the year,” the IMF said.
The fund also said it expected monetary policy to remain tight in some countries with high inflation rates, including Turkey where consumer prices jumped 11.20 percent year-on-year in September. Last month, in its medium-term programme Turkey said it expected economic growth of 5.5 percent in 2017 with inflation at 9.5 percent. The programme, updated annually, saw growth at 5.5 percent between 2018 and 2020. The IMF said it saw Turkey’s inflation remaining in double-digits at 10.9 percent in 2017, but later falling to 9.3 percent the following year.
