Todays Zaman reported that International Monetary Fund has revised its projections for Turkey's economic growth from an earlier 6.5% to 7.5% after the country's Q2 growth figures turned out higher than the IMF projected.

Mr Mark Lewis, the IMF's senior representative in Turkey, said that "The growth figure in Q2 outpaced our expectations and therefore we had to revise our projections. Our expectations are revised based on many factors, such as the macroeconomic environment in a country, the inflation and the current account deficit. We expect that the Turkish economy will grow by 7.5% by the end of 2011 while it will slow down to 2.5% by 2012."

The IMF projected that Turkey would grow by 6.5% and 2.25% in 2011 and 2012, respectively, in a previous report.

With the Justice and Development Party in power, Turkey has made significant progress over the last seven to eight years. Despite a contraction of 4.8% in 2009, the country clinched a 8.9% growth in 2010, became the fastest growing country in the world with 11% in this year's Q1 and achieved a 8.8% growth in the April to June 2011 period.

International rating agency Standard & Poor's applauded Turkey's noteworthy economic performance by raising its local currency sovereign credit rating by two notches to BBB-, or investment grade level.

On a question whether the IMF is making a negative projection for Turkey's future growth figures, Mr Lewis said that their growth expectations should not be seen as negative. He said that "A fall from 7.5% to 2.5% in 2012 is a reasonable slowdown. This means that Turkey will have soft landing."

(Sourced from www.todayszaman.com)