The Independent Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD) stated that the Turkish economy demonstrated its strong and stable structure with its growth rate in the third quarter of the year.

The written statement from MÜSİAD is as follows:

2021 is about to be a "testing year" for the Turkish economy, as it is for all countries worldwide. While many countries are struggling to survive in the wake of Covid-19, the Turkish economy has once again demonstrated its strong and stable structure to the world with a 7.4% growth rate.

This 7.4% rate demonstrates that the fundamental drivers of the Turkish economy are now fully on a positive growth track. The uninterrupted positive growth of our economy for five quarters since the third quarter of 2020, when normalization began after the pandemic, and the growth rate reaching 12.2% for the first three quarters of 2021 are highly significant, signaling sustainable growth.

When we look at the average growth rate of G20 countries, the successful performance of the Turkish economy becomes even clearer. Turkey's 7.4% top spot in the G20, despite growth rates of 6.6% for the UK, 4.9% for China and the US, 3.7% for the Eurozone, 2.5% for Germany, and only 1.4% for Japan, deserves the praise of everyone, regardless of their background.

Following consecutive export records, the 6.8 percentage point contribution from net foreign demand to growth was no surprise to anyone. This high contribution from exports to the 7.4% growth rate disproves the negative perception that the Turkish economy is driven solely by consumption. With the continued export momentum in the final quarter, coupled with the buoyant domestic demand and investments we believe will accelerate with interest rate cuts, double-digit growth throughout 2021 will not be a surprise to us.