TURKEY: Industrial Capacity Utilization Down

Turkey's Institute of Statistics (TURKSTAT) reported industrial capacity utilization down by 0.9 points in May 2008 compared to the same month in May 2007. Measured by Turkey's 5,000 or so industrial manufacturing units, capacity utilization was 82.4 percent in May 2008.

Reasons for the decrease include raw material shortages, lower domestic demand and Turkey's high interest rates for domestic industrial borrowing. However, skilled labor shortages and a critical lack of energy are cited as additional reasons.

Although an exporting country, Turkey's imports in dollar terms, particularly raw materials, routinely run at twice the value of exports. Some Turkish economists predicted that the country would be cushioned from the global credit crunch. However, as an emerging economy and net importer of gas and oil, Turkey was bound to be squeezed.

Source: Fibre2Fashion.com