Turkish industry minister says Turkey is second after China in growth rate

ANKARA (A.A) - December 12, 2011 - Turkey's science, industry and technology minister said on Monday that Turkey was ranked the second following China in growth rate in the world. Nihat Ergun said with 8.2 percent growth rate in the third quarter of 2011, Turkey was the second after China in growth rate in the world. "China grew 9.1 percent in the mentioned quarter, and India came the third after Turkey," Ergun told a televised interview. Earlier on Monday, Turkey's statistics authority said the country's economy grew 8.2 percent in the third quarter of this year. TurkStat said third quarter GDP stood at 31,029 billion Turkish liras on fixed prices.  Deseasonalized data showed the economy grew 7.7 percent in Q3 and it was also up 1.7 percent over the previous quarter.  "We can already say that Turkish economy has had a good growth potential in 2011 with an expected year-end growth rate of 8 percent," Ergun said. Ergun said the medium-term program projected Turkey's year-end growth in 2012 around 4 percent, but the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) forecast 2 percent. Moreover, Ergun said Turkey would deal with measures to cut down current account deficit in 2012.