January 27 (SeeNews) - Turkey's retail industry was valued at 1.1 trillion Turkish lira ($185 billion/167 billion euro) in 2019 after posting negative growth during the first three quarters of the year, local media reported, quoting consultancy firm KPMG Turkey.
The Turkish retail sector was down by 5.3% in the first quarter and by 3.9% in the second quarter, and shrank by a further 1% in the third quarter, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Friday, citing a report by KPMG Turkey.
Foreign direct investments in the sector reportedly came in at $837 million (758.7 million euro) in the ten months through October, out of a total of over $1.1 billion in the period under review.
The country saw the opening of five new shopping malls in 2019 on top of the 453 it had as of the end of 2018. Nine more shopping centres are set to open in 2020, but no new centers are expected to open starting 2023, the KPMG Turkey report showed.
The report suggested that the number of people using e-commerce platforms to shop increased to 34% in 2019, compared to 29.2% the previous year.
(1 euro = 6.55618 Turkish lira)