(Reuters) -Turkey’s economy expanded 2.0% in the first quarter of the year, below expectations, official data showed on Friday.
First-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) grew 1.0% from the previous quarter on a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed.
In a Reuters poll, the economy was forecast to have expanded 2.3% in the first quarter.
Turkey’s economy had grown 3.0% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing full-year growth to 3.2% and exceeding forecasts despite the weight of high interest rates.
Economists forecast an expansion of 3% in 2025 as a whole, slightly lower than last year, the poll showed, reflecting the effects of monetary tightening.
In December, the central bank started an easing cycle after having kept the main policy rate steady at 50% for eight months. Inflation has dipped from as high as 75% last May.
In April, Turkey’s central bank hiked its policy rate by 350 basis points and raised the lending rate to 49% in response to market turmoil that erupted over the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival.
(Reporting by Canan Sevgili in Gdansk; Editing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Jamie Freed)
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