Turkish premier says Turkish economy to keep growing

ANKARA (A.A) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkish economy would probably keep growing this year as well, when the euro-zone economy was expected to shrink. "Turkey is paying its debt to the IMF (International Monetary Fund). The debt had been 23.5 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2002 and now it decreased to 2.9 billion USD," said Erdogan, the chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, in his party's gathering in the parliament. 2012 would be a difficult year for Europe and the biggest problem was budget deficit in European countries, he said. Turkey would be affected a bit by situation in Europe, he said.  There were good developments in the tourism sector, he said. "The number of tourists visiting Turkey in 2002 was 13 million. Now the figure was 31.4 million in 2011. Tourism income also rose to 23 billion USD as of the end of 2011," he said. Erdogan said that Turkish Statistical Authority announced today export figures and the country's exports reached 135 billion USD, hitting a record.