Turkey’s industrial output shrank for the fifth month in a row in January, the clearest evidence of continued weakness in the Middle East’s largest economy after it fell into a technical recession during the last quarter of 2018
Combined production of Turkish manufacturers, miners and power producers slumped 7.3 percent from a year earlier, less than the median 8 percent drop predicted in a Bloomberg survey of economists. Output rose 1 percent from December, according to data published by Turkstat on its website.
Key Insights
- Production of capital and intermediate goods — important components of future growth — fell more than the overall output did, indicating that industrialists’ view on the economy hasn’t significantly improved.
- Production fell in most categories from computers to plastics and papers, indicating manufacturers think demand remains weak. Sluggish demand drove the slump in economic growth in the second half of last year.
- One of the few positive surprises was the 0.9 percent rise in durable goods production from January 2018. The category is closely linked to overall consumer sentiment, and production of durables fell for a total of eight months last year, when Turkey officially entered its first recession in a decade.
