Turkey's gross national product (GNP) rose by 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2000 compared to the figure for the same period last year, the state statistics institute said on Thursday.
The figures were issued against a background of high tension in Turkish financial markets owing to a liquidity squeeze.
There have been reports of heavy injections of emergency funds into the economy by the central bank, and of a request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to bring forward existing lines of credit.
The statistics institute said in a statement that the increase in GNP in the first nine months of the year from the figure for the same period in 1999 stood at 5.4 percent.
The growth rate for the first quarter of 2000 was 4.1 percent and 4.6 for the second quarter of the year.
The institute also said that it had revised the 1999 year-end growth rate from minus 6.4 percent to minus 6.1 percent.
Thursday's figure constitutes a recovery from the massive contraction the Turkish economy suffered due to lingering effect of the Russian financial crisis and the burden of two devastating earthquakes in the heavily-industrialised northwest.
The Turkish treasury expects the growth rate to reach seven percent at the end of the year -- ANKARA (AFP)
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