Turkish industry's productivity up over 2 pct in Q2

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkish industry's productivity for the second quarter of this year rose by 2.08 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Technology on Tuesday.

Official data showed that calendar adjusted index of production per person employed valued at 110.72 in the second quarter of 2018, while the figure was 108.46 in the same period last year.

Among major economic activities, annual hikes of productivity were 6.52 percent in mining and quarrying sector, 1.06 percent in manufacturing industry, and 0.44 percent in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply.

This April to June, the highest increase in productivity was recorded in the activities of extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas with an annual hike of 27.64 percent.

In the same period, the biggest drop in productivity was seen in the activities of manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products with a 24.45 percent yearly fall.

On the industrial groupings side, the maximum annual productivity increase was seen in non-durable consumer goods with 4.37 percent while index of production per person employed for durable goods increased by 0.64 percent.

The productivity for intermediate goods rose by 0.93 percent in the same period while capital goods saw a decline in productivity, falling 2.74 percent.

Official data also revealed that calendar adjusted index of production per person employed for energy sector rose by 3.42 percent over the same period.

The ministry noted that “calendar adjusted” data is derived from unadjusted data by removing calendar and holiday originated effects, and it should be used in annual comparison.

Explaining the purpose of quarterly productivity statistics, the ministry said: "Gross output based labour productivity traces the labour requirements per unit of (physical) output."

"It is calculated for the purpose of labour requirements analysis based on economic activities," it added.

The Ministry of Industry and Technology will release the next productivity report for the third quarter of this year on Dec., 11.