100 years on: Türkiye’s burgeoning economy

Since the foundation of the republic a century ago, Türkiye's economy has been transformed from an agrarian to a modern and industrial one, becoming a regional powerhouse.

The per capita income was only $45 at current prices in 1923, rising to $65 in 1927 when the country's population was 13.6 million.

The per capita income surpassed $100 in 1940, but it was only until 1975 when it rose to $1,155.

In 2022, when the country's population surged to 85 million, the per capita income stood at $10,659. It was $12,582 in 2013.

The size of the economy at current prices was 964 million Turkish Liras, or $577 million, a century ago. Türkiye became a 15 trillion, $905 billion, economy last year.

It grew on average 7 percent between 1950-59, but the rate of expansion remained below 4 percent during the 1990s.

Since 2003, the Turkish economy recorded an annual average growth rate of 5.4 percent.

In its latest medium-term program, the government projects that the size of the country's GDP will reach 41 trillion liras, or $1.1 trillion at current prices next year, and further grow to 63 trillion, $1.3 trillion, in 2026.

Exports: Engine of growth

Over the past decades, exports have become the engine of the Turkish economy. Back in 1923, when the republic was founded, the country's exports stood at only $50.8 million, while imports were at $87 million.

For the first time in the country's modern history, exports exceeded the $1 billion mark in 1973. They climbed to $10 billion in 1987 and reached $21 billion in 1995.

The $100 billion mark in export revenues was achieved in 2007, and last year, the country's export revenues amounted to $235 billion.

From January to August this year,...