EU report: Turkey's economy to grow 4.7 pct this year

Turkey's economic growth in 2018 is expected to be around 4.7 percent and 4.2 percent in 2019, according to the European Commission's Spring 2018 Economic Forecast released yesterday.

"The strong economic momentum that built up in the first half of last year will run out of steam only slowly. The driver of demand has shifted from strong government stimulus and foreign demand to private consumption," the report said.

Turkey's consumer price index is expected to be at 10.9 percent in 2018 and 9.0 percent in 2019, while unemployment will be 9.8 percent this year and 9.4 percent the next, it said.

Noting that growth rates for the European Union and the eurozone beat expectations in 2017 to reach a 10-year high at 2.4 percent, the report said growth is set to remain strong in 2018 and ease only slightly in 2019, with a growth of around 2.3 percent and 2.0 percent respectively in both the EU and the eurozone.

Unemployment continues to fall and is now around pre-crisis levels, said the report. In the EU, unemployment is set to continue to decline, from 7.6 percent in 2017 to 7.1 percent in 2018 and 6.7 percent in 2019, it said. Unemployment in the eurozone is forecast to fall from 9.1 percent in 2017 to 8.4 percent in 2018 and 7.9 percent in 2019.