ISTANBUL - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that during the rule of Justice & Development (AK) Party, Turkey`s export rate increased to 107 billion USD from 36 billion USD.
Speaking in a meeting in Istanbul, Erdogan said that EU-based figures will be announced on March 31st, and he added, "according to UN-based figures, our national income is 489 billion USD."
"New figures will be announced on Monday. I guess our national income will be announced as 650 billion USD according to that figures," he noted.
Erdogan said that national income per capita which was previously 2,500 USD increased to 3,310 USD, adding that predictions for 2007 is nearly 9,000 USD. "61.5 percent of national income was debt so far. This rate dropped to 34.2 percent in 2006," he noted.
Regarding Turkey`s relations with International Monetary Fund (IMF), Erdogan said that Turkey`s debt to IMF was 23.5 billion USD before AK Party came into rule, adding that the debt dropped to seven billion USD today. He added that reserves of Central Bank climbed to 71 billion USD from 26.5 billion USD.
(GC)