Page 29 - TURKRptAUG19

4.4.3 Retail sector dynamics
Turkey experienced the strongest drop in shopping centre completions, from 1mn square meters in 2017 to 0.5mn square meter in 2018 but it still maintained the top spot across Europe in terms of the total volume of new space added. Russia followed Turkey with some 400,000 square meters added while Poland came third. “Central and Eastern Europe also recorded a strong (31%) decline in shopping centre development in 2018. However, Turkey, Russia and Poland were the most active countries and together they accounted for nearly 50% of new openings in Europe,” the report said. “2018 saw approximately 2.6mn square meters of new shopping centre space completed, some 28% below the figure achieved in 2017 and bringing the total size of the European shopping centre market to 168mn sqm,” the report added.
Turkey’s Council of Shopping Centres (AYD) reported on July 8 that the shopping centres’ turnover index increased by 23.1% on an annual basis in May. However, the index measuring a decline in the number of visitors by 1.1% y/y in the month.
Household consumption contracted 4.7% y/y in the first quarter of 2019, according to the latest GDP data. That came on top of the 8.9% decline in consumer spending in the final quarter of last year. In 2018, household consumption increased only 1.1% from the previous year.
5.0 External Sector & Trade 5.1 External sector overview
TURKEY -Trade (USD mn)
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Q1/19
Jan-May
Balance on goods & services
-56,299
-36,918
-23,900
-25,629
-39,017
-16,260
-3,071
-5,557
(% of GDP)
-5.92
-3.95
-2.78
-2.97
-4.58
-2.12
-
-
Goods exports (BoP)
161,789
168,926
151,970
150,161
166,159
174,610
44,813
77,126
Goods imports (BoP)
241,706
232,519
200,098
191,053
225,114
216,479
47,884
82,683
Current account balance
-63,642
-43,610
-32,145
-33,139
-47,347
-27,115
-1,944
-3,142
Current account to GDP (%)
-6.7
-4.67
-3.74
-3.84
-5.56
-3.63
-
-
Source: bne IntelliNews, national statistics, IMF
29 TURKEY Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com