According to two new sets of economic data, Turkey’s economy grew by more than 8.0 per cent in 2011.
A growth rate of 8.3 per cent for Turkey is forecast in 2011 in a report prepared by the IMF for the G20 Meeting of Deputies in January 2012.
This was supported by recently released figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute that show Turkey’s GDP rose by more than eight per cent last year.
Hasan Arat, a leading member of Istanbul 2020 and Vice President of the NOC of Turkey, said, “Istanbul 2020 welcomes these new sets of data. They prove what we have been saying quietly and confidently for several years now that Turkey is building a strong, stable and sustainable new economic model. Turkey has an economy that will comfortably support an inspirational Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020 that will in turn provide further stimulus for continued economic development.
“With such economic growth we have been able to tackle many of the challenges faced by previous Istanbul bids. It has enabled us to create an innovative and compelling concept that will be outlined in our Application File that I and my team look forward to delivering in person to the IOC on Wednesday next week (15 February)”.
The financial strength between Istanbul’s Olympic bid has also been underlined in a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, which shows Turkey as the 15th most attractive country in the world for Foreign Direct Investment. This has resulted in Turkey being the only OECD country whose credit rating has been upgraded during the global financial crisis with public debt predicted to reduce from 37 per cent of GDP in 2012 to 32 per cent in 2014, one of the lowest among OECD nations.
