UPDATE 2-Turkey revises 2006 GDP up 31.6 percent

(Adds quotes, details, background)

By Hatice Aydogdu

ANKARA, March 8 (Reuters) - Turkey announced a huge upward revision of its national income on Saturday, with official data showing 2006 gross domestic product revised up 31.6 percent to 758.4 billion lira ($526 billion).

The increase in the official size of the European Union candidate's economy was in line with analysts' expectations and followed a comprehensive study of Turkey's national accounts system.

It also revised the country's 2006 per capita income up to around $7,500 from $5,480, the Turkish Statistics Institute chairman Omer Demir told a news conference.

"We can now see our economy's current situation much better than we could before," Demire said. "The most significant contribution came from the housing and manufacturing sectors. We were not expecting it to be so big."

Turkey's 2006 GDP had previously been reported as 576 billion lira, he said. Demir said that in dollar terms, 2006 GDP was revised up to $526.4 billion from $400.0 billion.

Analysts had forecast the revision would increase the measured size of the economy by around 25-30 percent.

Analysts said the revisions would result in a reduction of numerous important ratios between GDP and public sector debt, the budget and current account deficits and some have said it could support the country's credit rating outlook.