ANKARA, July 2: Turkey's economy grew by 6.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period last year, the Turkish Statistics Institute said on Monday. The figure shows the change in gross national product over the period, the preferred measure of Turkish economic growth, which includes the output of millions of Turkish workers abroad.

Turkey's GNP grew by 4.6 per cent over 12 months in the fourth quarter last year, but stronger performance in earlier quarters allowed the government to achieve 6 per cent growth over the full year, above the official forecast of 5 per cent.

The institute said that gross domestic product (GDP), which covers only goods and services produced within a country, rose by 6.8 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2007.

Turkey's GDP grew 5.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year and a total of 6.1 per cent for the whole of 2006.—AFP