Türkiye reports record 2025 exports as Erdoğan highlights growth streak

ISTANBUL

Türkiye posted a record year for exports in 2025, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 3, pointing to strong December figures and a continuing run of economic growth despite global uncertainty.

Speaking at the Istanbul Congress Center during an event to announce 2025 export data, Erdoğan said the economy expanded by 3.7 percent in the third quarter of 2025, marking 21 consecutive quarters of growth.

He also said Türkiye’s economic size rose to $1.538 trillion in the third quarter, up from $1.260 trillion in 2024.

Erdoğan said December exports reached $26.4 billion, a monthly record. Full-year goods exports rose 4.5 percent from the previous year to $273.4 billion, which he described as the highest annual figure in the country’s history.

He added that Türkiye’s goods and services exports were estimated at $396.5 billion in 2025, exceeding the government’s previously stated target. Erdoğan also set a new overall export goal of $410 billion for 2026.

On trade balances, Erdoğan said the export-to-import coverage ratio improved to 74.8 percent in 2025, up from around 50 percent in 2002. He also said 33 provinces exported more than $1 billion during the year.

By province, the top five exporters were Istanbul ($57.8 billion), Kocaeli ($35.1 billion), İzmir ($23.6 billion), Bursa ($20.0 billion) and Tekirdağ ($13.2 billion), according to figures cited in local reports from the event.

Erdoğan also highlighted manufacturing and high-value sectors.

He said Türkiye’s domestically produced brand Togg entering the European market with new models showed the country’s engineering and design strength. Erdogan added that the automotive sector’s annual production of 1.5 million vehicles and exports exceeding $41 billion placed Türkiye as Europe’s fourth-largest and the world’s 12th-largest production hub.

In defense, Erdoğan said exports rose from $248 million in 2002 to $9.87 billion in 2025.

He added that Türkiye had become the European Union’s fifth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching $232.7 billion in 2025, and argued that modernizing the Customs Union is “unavoidable.”

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat, also speaking at the event, said Türkiye gained “positive momentum” in exports at a time when global growth remained weak and protectionist tendencies, including higher tariffs, were on the rise.

Bolat said Türkiye was the second-largest exporter-growth performer among OECD countries in the post-pandemic period and ranked first when compared with the EU’s 27 member states.

He also said cumulative foreign direct investment rose from $13.5 billion to $284 billion over the past 23 years, and that 87,000 international investors were operating in Türkiye.