MÜSİAD President Mahmut Asmalı commented on the 2022 fourth quarter economic growth figures announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). President Asmalı stated the following in his statement:

"The Turkish economy continued its positive growth trend for the 10th consecutive quarter, growing by 3.5 percent in the last quarter of 2022 and 5.6 percent for the entire year. Thus, Turkey, which ranked second among the G20 countries with released data after Saudi Arabia, managed to outpace economies such as the UK, which grew by 4.0 percent, China, which grew by 3.0 percent, and the US, which grew by 2.1 percent during the same period.

The significant contribution of domestic demand to growth throughout 2022, at 12.8 points, along with the positive contributions of investments and net foreign demand, at 0.7 and 0.6 points respectively, indicates that growth is widespread.

This success, achieved despite the global economic conjuncture still in the recovery phase following the Russo-Ukrainian War, reaffirmed the resilience of the Turkish economy. This resilience was disrupted by the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquake, the greatest disaster of the century." Despite the weakened economic activity, we have full confidence that it will continue in 2023.

In this context, as MÜSİAD, we are intensively continuing our efforts to normalize social life in the earthquake zone, followed by economic life. In these 10 provinces, which account for approximately 9.0 percent of total GDP, account for almost 8.0 percent of total exports, and are prominent in many sectors, particularly the manufacturing industry, our top priority is to restore basic human living conditions and then economic activity to pre-earthquake levels.

The extraordinary efforts of our state and nation, hand in hand, to heal the wounds in the region through great solidarity and a historic aid campaign, are crucial for the economic reconstruction of the region. In addition to reconstruction efforts in the earthquake zone, we will rise again together with new projects and measures to protect production, employment, and exports.