Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey was one of the rare countries where negative growth did not occur and its economy grew by 1.8% in 2020, said Auguste Tano Kouame, the World Bank country director for Turkey.

"This is actually a very important growth rate for large economies,” Kouame stressed during an introductory meeting of the 5th series of the Turkey Economic Monitoring Report published by the World Bank.

He said that the report includes evaluations on the Turkish economy and suggestions for strong and inclusive growth in the future.

"Many countries have been grappling with the effects of this crisis. The global economy shrank by 4.3% last year, if you exclude China, we are talking about a 5% shrinkage," he said.

The pandemic has increased poverty all over the world, he said, adding: “We think that in 2020, nearly 100 million people in the world fell into extreme poverty.”

Sharing the main findings of the report, David Knight, a senior economist at World Bank Macroeconomics, Trade and Investment Unit said: "Although Turkey was seriously affected by the pandemic, the overall economic performance of Turkey was very good throughout 2020. It grew by 1.8% in real terms."

In fact, Turkey was the fastest growing country among the G20 countries as of last year, he noted, adding the growth is expected to be 5% this year.

He stated that the fiscal situation of Turkey was relatively good in the past year and that the budget deficit was 3.5%, pointing out Turkey's budget deficit was much lower compared to many other countries.

Noting that the World Bank expects inflation to be 15.5% this year, Knight said: "We expect the current potential growth to realize 4.5% per year in 2022 and 2023, in the light of current data."

He also emphasized that Turkey has a competitive advantage in realizing the green transformation, saying that measures have been taken that can play a very positive role on assets and balance sheets in order to ensure a timely and effective recovery in Turkey./aa