Foreign trade deficit narrows while import declines in nine months

By News Centre

Turkish Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat noted that with the decline in imports, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 31.5 percent in 9 months, falling to 60.1 billion dollars.

"Our exports in September decreased by 1.8 percent to $22 billion. Exports in the January-September period were $192.8 billion, while exports in the last 12 months were $261.6 billion. Among the sectors with the highest exports, automotive maintained its first place with $3.4 billion. At the same time, automotive, which had the highest monthly exports, was followed by chemicals with $2.2 billion, and ready-made clothing and apparel with $1.6 billion," the Minister said.

3.2 percent increase in the January-September period

Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat stated that exports increased by 3.2 percent compared to the same period last year and reached 193 billion dollars in the first 9 months of 2024, and said, "Thus, a net increase of 5.9 billion dollars was achieved in goods exports in the first 9 months." Minister Bolat announced the foreign trade figures for September at the press conference he held with the President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (T?M) Mustafa Gültepe at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Trade.

The cost of 5 Sunday days is 1 bln USD

Minister Bolat drew attention to the importance of the calendar effect in the slight decline in September, saying, "While we had 5 Friday exports in September last year, we can export 2.4 billion dollars on Thursdays and Fridays. The days when our exports are the least are Saturdays and Sundays. This year, there were 5 Sundays in September. The negative calendar effect of this corresponded to 1 billion dollars. If one market was missing, we would be announcing an increase in exports of 600 million dollars."

Decline in imports continues

Ömer Bolat noted that there was a 1.4 percent decrease in imports and said, “In the third quarter of 2024, we have a 4.4 percent increase in exports compared to the same quarter of the previous year, which corresponds to an increase of 3 billion dollars. There is also a decrease of approximately 6 billion dollars in imports in the said period.”

Minister Bolat stated that the foreign trade deficit was 5.1 billion dollars in September, drawing attention to the decrease in 11 of the last 14 months. Also touching on the developments in the foreign trade deficit, Bolat said, "The foreign trade deficit decreased by 31.5 percent in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year, from 87.7 billion dollars to 60.1 billion dollars." Bolat said that the foreign trade deficit decreased by 27.6 billion dollars in the first nine months.

Global risks have a negative affect

T?M Chairman Mustafa Gültepe said, "Our September exports fell by 1.8 percent compared to last year. The weak demand in the EU and concerns about recession in our largest market, Germany, are negatively affecting our exports. However, the fundamental problem stems from our loss of competitiveness." Mustafa Gültepe reported that the countries to which we export the most are Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Iraq and Italy. Gültepe stated that they achieved an export increase of over 50 percent in 42 countries and over 10 percent in 87 countries, and added, "In the general picture, we increased our exports to 113 countries. Among the country groups to which we export the most, the European Union (EU) ranked first again with 9.1 billion dollars. The share of the European continent in our total exports was 58.2 percent."