Turkey made public its European Union (EU) pre-accession economic program on Monday.

Turkey's State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Nazim Ekren, State Minister Mehmet Simsek and Finance Minister Kemal Unakitan held a press conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara, and made public the pre-accession economic program.

The program envisions a 3.6-percent economic shrinkage this year. However, Turkey's economy is expected to grow by 3.3 percent in 2010 and by 4.5 percent in 2011.

According to the program, the stagnation in foreign demand will affect the industrial sector the most. The industrial production is expected to stagnate by 9.7 percent in 2009, but grow by 3 and 4.7 percent respectively in 2010 and 2011.

The program envisages a 13.5 percent rise in unemployment rate in 2009, and the year-end inflation in consumer prices around 7.5 percent.

According to the pre-accession economic program, Turkey's year-end inflation in consumer prices will be 6.5 percent in 2010 and 5.5 percent in 2011.

The program forecasts the current balance deficit in 2009 around 11 billion USD. This figure would be 18.6 billion USD in 2010 and 26.4 billion USD in 2011, the program says.

The pre-accession economic program envisages that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be up 4.6 percent by the end of 2009, and it will be around 3.2 and 2.8 percent respectively in 2010 and 2011.


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