[eli5] Economic growth while gdp is shrinking

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https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/TUR/turkey/gdp-gross-domestic-product

There is a data I didn’t understand here, between 2013-2020, real Gdp of Turkey is shrinking but data says there is a positive growth. How does this work?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I’m also a little puzzled by this but I think it’s down to the exchange rate and the different way the figures are calculated. For GDP and GDP/capita:

>Data are in current U.S. dollars. Dollar figures for GDP are converted from domestic currencies using single year official exchange rates.

Whereas GDP change is:

>Annual percentage growth rate of GDP at market prices based on constant local currency.

So let’s say the size of the economy went from 1 to 2 trillion lira (adjusted for inflation). In local currency that’s 100% growth. However at the same time the official exchange rate dropped from US$ 1 = 50TL to US$1 = 100TL.

So in the first year “GDP” is 1 trillion / 50 = $20 billion and in the second it’s 2 trillion / 100 = $20 billion. Instead of 100% growth that’s 0%.

The Turkish lira did fall a lot against the dollar in the period you’re talking about, so this seems plausible.