Turkey - not just for Christmas

Posted on 9 August 2012 by Douglas Chadwick

Turkey is not just for Christmas, it could make a fine investment all the year round.
 
Turkey has a large free market of $1.1 trillion which is increasingly driven by the Industrial and Service sectors, although traditional agriculture still accounts for 20% of employment. Increasing Privatisation has greatly reduced the amount of State involvement in industry resulting in the rise of an entrepreneurial middle class with an accompanying general fall in the unemployment rate to below 9%. Exports mainly to Euroland are growing continuously and now exceed $140 billion per annum with textiles now taking a back seat to automotive and electronic components.
 
In 2001 Turkey had to bring in strong financial reforms on the back of seeking help from the I.M.F. This resulted in Turkey avoiding the Financial and Banking crisis of 2008. Their GDP is now growing at around 8% with the public debt now below 40%. How many developed countries would love to own these numbers?  Turkey has a young working population in an expanding economy with close links to Euroland, without the albatross of the Euro. On the face of it you would think it a good place to put some of your investments. However some of Turkeys neighbours are involved in the "Arab Spring" uprising and this has made for considerable unrest on its borders. A potential future problem perhaps?