Export growth rate accelerates, breaking record in past month

By News Centre

Turkiye's exports broke a record in October by increasing by 3.6 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching $23 billion 600 billion. Imports last month also decreased by 0.1 percent to $29 billion 364 million. Thus, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 13 percent on an annual basis, falling to $5.7 billion. Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, who announced the foreign trade figures at a press conference held in Antalya, said, "In October, we broke the highest October export record in the history of our Republic. Last year, October exports were $22.8 billion. Our exporters achieved an increase of approximately $800 million. Thus, we broke records in 10 of the last 15 months. In the first 10 months of 2024, our goods exports increased from $209.7 billion to $216.4 billion. We increased our goods exports by $6.7 billion in the first 10 months of the year."

Decreasing trend in imports continues

Minister Bolat drew attention to the fact that the decreasing trend in imports continued and said: "A foreign trade deficit of 6.6 billion dollars was recorded in October 2023. We see that our foreign trade deficit has decreased in 12 of the last 15 months. In October 2024, we increased the export-import coverage ratio by 3 points to 80.4 percent. Our 10-month imports decreased by 7.2 percent to 282 billion dollars."

Bolat, who informed that 90.2 billion were exported to the European Union in the January-October period, completed his words as follows: "We have 22 billion dollars of exports to the Balkan countries. There was a significant increase in our exports to Bulgaria this year. The top five countries we exported to in the January-October period were Germany, the USA, the United Kingdom, Iraq, and Italy, respectively. There was a 2.3 billion dollar increase in our exports to the UK, and our exports to Saudi Arabia are increasing rapidly. Israel is in first place in terms of decreases. The data from the first four months shows a 67 percent decrease, but there has not been a dollar of trade with Israel since May 2. However, for the Palestinian side and the Palestinian state, we grant export permits for products officially requested by the Palestinian Ministry of National Economy, under the control of the ministry, provided that the destination is Palestine and the recipient is Palestinians."

19 sectors increased their foreign sales

Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) Chairman Mustafa Gültepe also underlined that the automotive sector was again in the first place in exports. Gültepe said, "I congratulate our sector that achieved 3.58 billion dollars of exports. The automotive sector was followed by chemicals with 2.5 billion dollars, ready-made clothing with 1.58 billion dollars, electrical-electronics with 1.55 billion dollars, and steel with 1.3 billion dollars. The sectors that increased their exports the most proportionally were ships and yachts with 78 percent, defense and aviation with 61 percent, and hazelnuts with 58 percent." Gültepe, who stated that exports increased in 19 sectors in October and decreased in 7 sectors, said, "When we look at the sectors that experienced decreases, our jewelry sector was the sector that decreased exports the most last month with 24 percent." Gülle also stated that the unit export value increased by 7 percent to 1.56 dollars.