Turkey’s exports decrease 1.5 pct to $12.3 bln in October: Association

ISTANBUL

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Turkey’s exports declined by 1.5 percent to $12.3 billion in October, although exports saw a 10 percent increase on an amount (kilogram) basis compared to the same month of 2015, according to data released by the Exporters’ Assembly of Turkey (TİM) on Nov. 1. 

The country’s exports saw an 8.6 percent drop to $119.6 billion in the first ten months of the year compared to the same period of 2014, according to the TİM data. The loss in Turkey’s exports due to around 17.2 percent of decrease in euro-dollar parity was $10.6 billion in the first ten months of the year, according to TİM data. 

The 12-month exports decreased by 7.8 percent to $145.9 billion compared to the same period of 2014. 

The largest amount of exports were made by the automotive sector at $2.03 billion in October, followed by the ready-made clothing sector at $1.6 billion and the chemical substances sector at $1.3 billion. 

Turkey made the biggest amount of exports to Germany, Britain, Iraq, Italy and France in October. The country’s exports to Germany rose by 3.7 percent in October compared to the same month of 2014, to Britain by 7.7 percent, to Iraq by 3.5 percent, to Italy by 26.3 percent and to France by 13.8 percent, according to TİM data. 

While Turkey’s exports to the European Union (EU) rose by 9.5 percent in October compared to the same month of 2014, the country’s exports to the Middle East and Africa declined by 1.5 percent, to North Africa by 3.7 percent and to the Commonwealth of the Independent States (CIS) by 26.9 percent, according to TİM data. 

TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi called for the new government to work on boosting innovation and value-added production and exports to revive the economy, adding that a special focus is needed to increase Turkey’s exports to its main market, the EU. 

“Turkey can see higher economic growth levels through increasing its exports with higher added-value. This is possible for our country by realizing the required structural reforms. As exporters, we hope to see more focus on achieving structural reforms, which aim to boost exports and industry-based production, maintaining the rule of law and strengthening the independence of courts,” he said in a written statement on Nov. 1, adding that such reforms and a special focus on the EU market are needed with world trade shrinking and global economic risks increasing. 

He noted that Turkish exports expect further recovery in the EU market with the help of current quantitative easing by 2016. 

“In this vein, we expect significant export opportunities in this market for us in the next year. Poland, Sweden, Spain, Britain and the Czech Republic are expected to grow relatively higher than the EU average. Our exports to the EU-28 increased by 10 percent on euro basis in the last year, although the EU-28’s imports grew just 3 percent in this period,” he said.