Economy of Istanbul - Istanbul Finance Centre - About istanbul economy

Economy of Istanbul covers the issues related to the economy of the city of Istanbul, Turkey.

Bosphorus BridgeHistorically, Istanbul has been the center of the country's economic life because of its location as an international junction of land and sea trade routes. In 2005 the City of Istanbul had a GDP of $133 billion.[1]

In 2005 companies based in Istanbul made exports worth $41,397,000,000 and imports worth $69,883,000,000; which corresponded to 56.6% and 60.2% of Turkey's exports and imports, respectively, in that year.[2] In 2006 Turkey's exports grew a further +16.1% while imports grew +17.6% because of a rising demand of energy resources and raw materials by the industrial manufacturers in the country.[3] According to Forbes magazine, Istanbul had a total of 35 billionaires as of March 2008 (up from 25 in 2007), ranking 4th in the world behind Moscow (74 billionaires), New York City (71 billionaires) and London (36 billionaires), while ranking above Hong Kong (30 billionaires), Los Angeles (24 billionaires), Mumbai (20 billionaires), San Francisco (19 billionaires), Dallas (15 billionaires) and Tokyo (15 billionaires).[4]


View of the city from Gülhane Park near Topkapı PalaceIncome distribution is not fairly balanced in Istanbul, such that 20% of the highest income group uses 64% of the resources and 20% of the lowest income group uses 4% of the resources (based on 1994 statistics).[5] The change in Istanbul's living standards is a direct reflection of the nation's statistics as the 27.5% share of the total consumption in Turkey is performed by the population of Istanbul.

In the late 1990s, the economy of Turkey, and Istanbul in particular, suffered several major depressions. The Asian financial crisis between July 1997 and the beginning of 1998, as well as the crisis in Russia between August 1998 and the middle of 1999 had negative effects in all areas of the economy, particularly on exports. Following this setback, a slow reorganization of the economy of Istanbul was observed in 1999.

The major earthquake which was epicentered in nearby Kocaeli on August 17, 1999, triggered one of the largest economic shocks for the city. Apart from the capital and human losses caused by the disaster, a decrease in GDP of approximately two percent occurred. Despite these downturns, Istanbul's economy has strongly improved and recovered in the recent years.