Turkey aims to achieve solid annual growth of around five percent and halve inflation in the next three years, according to a pre-EU accession economic programme released on Wednesday. The blueprint was unveiled after its presentation to the European Union, which will decide at a December 17 summit whether to give Turkey a date to start membership talks.
Markets expect the negotiations to begin in 2005 and to last around 10 years.
"The average annual growth forecast is five percent for the 2005-2007 period. This is Turkey's potential growth level. Exports and foreign investment will be the basis for the growth," said Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener.
Officials have said economic growth this year may exceed 10 percent, compared with a targeted five percent, as the country experiences a strong recovery from a 2001 financial crisis which led to a deep recession.
The pre-accession programme, unveiled by ministers at a news conference, envisaged the creation of 1.65 million jobs over the next three years, cutting unemployment to 9.7 percent from 10 percent in 2004.
The programme showed Turkey expects to attract some $15 billion in foreign capital investment in the 2005-2007 period.
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