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Joblessness on the rise in Turkey

October 17, 2016

The Turkish statistics agency has reported a rise in unemployment in the country. It pointed out that joblessness among young people was of particular concern, with tourism taking a major hit after terror threats.

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Turkish market
Image: DW/S.Raheem

Turkey's unemployment rate rose to 10.7 percent in July, the country's statistics office, Turkstat, reported Monday.

The figure was 0.9 percent higher than in the same month a year earlier, while the rate for youth unemployment surged by 1.5 percent to 19.8 percent in July.

Analysts had warned that in dealing with the aftermath of a failed putsch in July, the government risked bruising the nation's previously robust growth as a result of stalled reforms and rule of law concerns.

Mixed signals

Renaissance Capital's Michael Harris told the AFP news agency that "long term, any deterioration in the rule of law has an impact on the willingness to invest."

Turkey posted a healthy 4-percent GDP expansion in 2015. But since then there's been a slew of indications the economy is starting to hurt, with July industrial production plummeting and second-quarter growth slowing to 3.1 percent, down from 4.7 percent in the first three months of the year.

In summer, ratings agencies Moody's and S&P downgraded Turkey's bonds to junk status on doubts over the nation's ability to pay back debt.

Turkey had not been happy with the decision, insisting that the country had displayed fiscal discipline, kept the debt-to-GDP ratio in check and launched a key pension reform.

hg/jd (dpa, AFP)