Factory Production in Turkey Rose 17% in March

Data showed today, Tuesday, that industrial production in Turkey jumped 16.6% year on year in March, exceeding expectations by a large margin, to record growth for the tenth month in a row after a sharp slowdown last year, coinciding with the start of measures to combat the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Turkish Statistics Institute said industrial production rose 0.7% on a monthly basis in March, after adjusting in light of calendar and seasonal factors.

A Reuters poll forecast production growth of 12.5% year-on-year.

Production at a large number of Turkish factories stopped a year ago, shortly after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded. Output fell 31.4% in April and 19.9% in May before recovering in June.

The manufacturing industry is exempt from the isolation measures and the closure of virus-related activities that have been taken in recent months.