Turkey’s steady economy increasingly attracts the attention of German companies and German-born Turks seeking employment as Europe continues to battle its ongoing debt crisis.
Amid the crisis-wracked Eurozone the Turkish economy has expanded its gross domestic product (GDP) by an annual average of 5.4 percent over the past 10 years. Public debt has fallen below 40 percent of the GDP, a number much lower than what is seen in the majority of European countries. Inflation, once dizzyingly high in Turkey, has recently been put under control.
“Flattening growth in [Europe] will trigger new growth and foreign direct investments in Turkey, making it an indispensable part of long-term strategic planning for European firms,” consultant Roland Berger wrote in a recent study.
Turkey has a population of 74 million, with more than 60 percent age 35 or younger and with purchasing power growing from year to year there is a strong demand in areas such as infrastructure, energy, cars and the financial sector.
These are precisely the sectors where German companies excel giving them an increased interest in Turkish markets. Out of around 30,000 foreign companies in Turkey, nearly 5,000 are German, according to the German-Turkish chamber of commerce in Istanbul. Indeed, the number of new German-funded companies set up in Turkey last year shot up 14 percent to reach 534.
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