The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) April 2017 World Economic Outlook report was eagerly anticipated in Turkey amid the country's serious economic woes and political turmoil.
For Turkey, the most important aspect of the report was the IMF's approval of a new calculation method adopted last year by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) to determine gross domestic product. In a move that stirred much controversy, the TUIK revised figures retroactively so that the country’s 2015 GDP, for instance, increased 20%. The IMF, however, has downplayed the criticism that Turkish pundits have leveled against the move by employing the new GDP data, according to which the Turkish economy grew 6.1% in 2015 and 2.9% in 2016.