Türkiye: Unemployment rate drops to 8.8% in December
Official data showed, today, Monday, that the unemployment rate in Turkey fell by 0.1 percentage points on a monthly basis to 8.8% last December, and thus, it returns to being close to its lowest levels in 10 years, which it recorded in October.
Data issued by the Turkish Statistical Institute showed that the labor force participation rate in December rose to 53.5% from 53% in the previous month, while a seasonally adjusted index of labor underutilization rose 2.1 percentage points to 24.7%.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in October, its lowest level in ten years.
This comes after official data showed, last Friday, that Turkish industrial output rose in December by 2.4% on a monthly basis, in a reading adjusted in light of seasonal and calendar factors.
The Turkish Statistical Institute reported that output rose in December by 1.6% on an annual basis.
The Turkish economy suffers from high inflation rates despite raising interest rates, which is feared to lead to an economic contraction that will affect the employment sectors.
The inflation rate rose to 6.7% on a monthly basis and to 64.8% on an annual basis last January, due in part to a large jump in the minimum wage and an increase in the prices of a range of goods in the new year.
The Turkish Central Bank raised the main interest rate by another 2.5 percentage points last January, reaching 45%, in order to move forward with a series of increases aimed at combating inflation.
The new head of the Central Bank, Fatih Kara Khan, said last Thursday that “inflation expectations at the end of 2024 are estimated at 36%, while expectations for the end of 2025 indicate 14%.”
(Reuters, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed)
2024-02-12 10:34:49
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