Turkey’s strong economic performance in the last decade, most evident in its average GDP growth rate of 5.1%, far outperformed the other member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the organisation expects this to continue moving forward.

According to the OECD data covering the 2003-2012 period, (with this year’s figures based on estimates), the GDP growth of member countries averaged just 1.7%, while the global rate stood at 3.5%.

Turkey in the given period attained a rate of 5.1%, outperforming its OECD peers by a considerable margin. Thanks to a strong recovery in 2010 (9.2%) and 2011 (8.5%), the country’s GDP has increased more than three-fold over the past 10 years, reaching $772bn in 2011, up from $231bn in 2002.

Turkey’s GDP expansion in 2012 will be on par with the world average of 2.9%, according to the OECD estimate, still well above the 1.4% average growth rate of the 34-member organisation.