The "Turkish Economy-2022 TURKSTAT" research, which analyzes the economy of our 81 provinces, reveals what kind of test we give. When the data is examined, the evaluation of the "pandemic report of the provinces" also emerges. This study, which identifies the weak points of the provinces and the sources of resilience, also lists the signs of disease in the economy.
Sick Provinces
The province that suffered the most damage from the pandemic process was Antalya, whose economy shrank the most by 24%. Due to the over-reliance of its economy on tourism, Antalya lost a quarter of its income. The shrinkage in the main services sector, which consists of trade, transportation, storage, accommodation and food services, was 42%. In the research in which 81 provinces were evaluated in terms of main services, vocational, administrative and support services and other service activities, the second province whose economy fell seriously ill was Muğla, whose economy shrank by 9%! The shrinkage in main services, which has the highest share in the provincial economy, was 26%. Nevşehir, which contracted by 5%, is in the 3rd place! Unlike the first three provinces, agriculture played the leading role in the economic shrinkage of Kırıkkale, which ranks 4th with a 3% economic contraction. Agriculture in Kırıkkale experienced a serious contraction of 12%.
9 Cities Have Grown
Among the provinces with double-digit growth in the research, Gaziantep drew attention with its high growth rate of 12%. The highest contribution to Ankara's nearly double the growth rate was the 40% growth of the industry in the province. The other province with the fastest growing economy was Aksaray with 15%. The growth rate of 15% in agriculture and 90% of construction related to public investments were decisive in Aksaray's performance. A similar situation was also valid for the Elazig economy, which grew by 12%, but the shrinkage of 7% in the industry did not go unnoticed. The 16% growth of the industry was decisive for Çanakkale's growth rate of 14%. The growth of 48% of industry and 34% of agriculture was effective in Ardahan's success.
Ankara, which has the highest share after Istanbul with 9% in the Turkish economy, reached an effective speed of 7% and became the province that contributed the most to its total growth in 2020. Ankara achieved this growth rate thanks to double-digit growth rates in agriculture, information and communication, finance and insurance and other service sectors, which have a relatively low weight in its economy. On the other hand, there was a contraction in the industry, construction and main service sectors, which are the main sectors of the economy in Ankara. İzmir, which has the third largest share in the country's economy with 6%, was able to achieve a very limited growth of 2% due to the negative trend in tourism.
Industrial Cities
Kocaeli, one of the industrial bases, showed a positive performance with a growth of 6%. The 5% growth of the industry, which has an overwhelming weight in the provincial economy with 41%, and the 6% growth of the main services, which have the second largest share with 25%, were reflected in the overall performance. Kocaeli, whose GDP per capita increased by 6% in real terms, maintained its second place. Konya, which is one of the important bases of both agriculture and industrial production, showed a successful performance with 6%. The 10% growth of the industry was decisive in this result. Adana, another important center in terms of agriculture and industry, grew by 6%. The growth rate of 10% in the industry and 58% in the construction were effective in Mersin's achievement of this result, which also achieved a growth rate of 7%.
Kayseri achieved its 5% growth performance thanks to the 12% growth in the industry. Thanks to the 10% growth in the industry, Hatay kept its total growth at 5% despite the contraction in agriculture and construction. Tekirdağ, which is among the top 20 in the economy, was among the successful provinces with a growth of 5.2% and Samsun with a growth of 4.7%. Among the top 20 provinces, Balıkesir achieved a mediocre performance with a growth rate of 3.6% and Manisa 3.5%. Among the top 20 provinces, Denizli had a stagnant year with growth rates of 2.5%, Eskişehir 2.1% and Sakarya 1.5%.
The contraction deepens
In addition to the tourism and culture sectors, Istanbul was adversely affected by the contraction in construction and contracted by 0.30%. Since it has a large share of 30% in the country's economy on its own, even this small shrinkage became the third province to decrease in growth in 2020, after Antalya and Muğla. On the other hand, Bursa, which shrank by 2.1% in 2020 and was the 5th province, the industry, which has a huge weight of 40% in the economy, shrank by 4% and the construction sector contracted by 27%.
It has been understood by this report that the necessary infrastructure support has not been given to programs such as "Production Mobilization" and "Producing Cities" until today. In this respect, there is a need for databases that will enable "more qualified and detailed planning of regional development policies". “There can be no sharing in the form of sacrifice in the real sector, profit in the financial sector!” Based on the reality, we should focus on the strategic priority of development. We must meet with the effort that prevents the deepening of the economic contraction and equalizes the tables by offering a "qualified substrate" to industry and agriculture.