The Turkish economy is by no means sheltered against the eurozone's woes, as its economy vastly depends on the indebted European economies, Hürriyet Daily News reported Friday. Though the country's finances are in a good shape currently based on the Central Bank's latest data, still it has no room for looser policies, economists agreed. The Central Bank's routine expectation survey released Friday raised the projection for the country's yearend current account deficit forecast to $73.6 billion from $72.65 billion only two weeks ago. The revised yearend inflation projection was 8.01 percent in the second half of October. The first survey in November raised the expectation to 9.08 percent. The bank had warned of an inflation hike by the end of the year several times last month. The forecast for the local currency's value against the US dollar dropped to 1.78 Turkish Liras from 1.85 liras. The bank's growth forecast is 6.8 percent this year and 3.7 percent for 2012. The rapid growth in recent months was mainly dependent on domestic demand, according to Seyfettin Gürsel, head of Economic and Social Researches Center (BETAM) at Istanbul's Bahçe?ehir University. “Turkey saw an investment booming in 2010 and 2011. It was related to domestic demand. But we are coming close to the end of such a growth model,” Gürsel said. Increasing exports is a must. The developments in Europe will have a negative effect. Turkey's exports should grow faster than imports.” Moreover, Istanbul hotel market experienced positive growth in both average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) year-to-September 2011. The trend is encouraging, as new supply has grown by an additional 1,868 daily rooms (+5.9 percent) since 2010, according to STR Global, the leading provider of market data to the hotel industry. As a result of the government's introduction of economic stimulus measures in 2010, the Turkish economy, which is still recovering from the downturn in 2009, is approaching positive GDP growth. However, the European Commission warned Friday that the EU economy could fall back into recession early next year. Turkey stood at the negative side of the mutual trade balance with even the debt-hit Greece and Italy in the first nine months of the year, according to separate Economy Ministry data. The country's gap in trade with Italy in the first three quarters was $4.1 million. Italy was the second biggest exporter to Turkey as of the end of October. The gap between Turkey and Greece in the same period was $775 billion in favor of the latter.
