ANKARA: Turkey’s unemployment rate rose to a four-year high of 10.9 percent in December 2014, up from 10.7 percent in November 2014 and 10 percent in December 2013, according to the Labor Force Statistics data released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) on March 16.
The non-agricultural unemployment rate rose to 12.9 percent, while the youth unemployment rate for the 15-24 age group rose to over 20 percent at 20.2 percent and unemployment in the 15-64 age group increased to 11.2 percent over the same period.
The rise in unemployment was caused by the slowing down of economic growth and the rise in the participation to the labor force, according to analysts.
Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said on March 13 that Turkey’s 2014 growth rates would be announced at below 3 percent. The official growth numbers for the last year will be announced soon.
“We need to set higher growth targets, but we can only achieve this by making structural reforms, not by means of temporary financial and monetary policies,” he said.
Turkey’s growth potential was around 3 percent with its own dynamics, but each increase in exports makes a positive contribution to the country’s growth, Babacan said.
