Turkey's unemployment rate fell 1.8 percentage points on a yearly basis in November compared to the same month in 2016, the country's statistical authority has said.
TurkStat stated that unemployment stood at 10.3 percent, saying the number of unemployed persons age 15 and over – 3.27 million last November -- decreased by 440,000 year-on-year.
The youth unemployment rate - including persons aged 15-24 – stood at 19.3 percent with a 3.3 percentage point decline.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Finance Minister, Naci Agbal, said the state budget showed a surplus of 1.7 billion lira ($451 million) in January, compared with a surplus of 11.4 billion lira in the same period a year earlier.
Current economic activity showed that tax revenues in 2018 will meet medium-term targets, Agbal said in a statement.
The January budget produced a primary surplus of 7.7 billion lira, down from a surplus of 18 billion lira the previous year, he added.
In other economic news, Basaran Ulusoy, the chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB), expected the number of foreign visitors to Turkey to rise 10 percent this year.
Ulusoy said early bookings mainly by European tourists are an indicator that the number of those visiting Turkey in the summer is expected to reach around 14-15 million.
He reminded that the number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey in the June-July-August period in 2017 stood at 13.2 million.
The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey in 2017 increased by 27.84 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year, reaching around 32.4 million.
Tourism revenues also increased by 18.89 percent compared to 2016, reaching $26.3 billion.
