E-exports expected to reach $8 billion this year: Minister

ISTANBUL

The volume of Türkiye’s e-exports is expected to increase to $8 billion at the end of 2024, according to Trade Minister Ömer Bolat.

The country’s e-exports soared 131 percent last year to exceed $5 billion, said the minister, who delivered a speech at the Global E-Export Summit (IGEXX) in Istanbul on Sept. 4.

The share of e-exports in Türkiye’s overall goods exports was 0.91 percent in 2022 and increased to 2.1 percent in 2023, Bolat noted.

In the first eight months of 2024, e-exports surged by 94 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching $4.16 billion and its share in total goods exports increased to 2.7 percent, according to the minister.

“We aim for a total of $8 billion in e-exports by the end of 2024. Thus, the share of e-exports in total exports of goods will exceed 3 percent. Our goal is to increase the share of e-exports in total exports to 10 percent by 2028,” Bolat said.

The global e-commerce volume grew by 75 percent since 2019 to climb an all-time high of $5.8 trillion by 2023 and it is expected to increase by 8 percent this year to reach $6.3 trillion, according to the minister.

The share of e-commerce in Türkiye’s gross domestic product (e-GDP) rose by 33.3 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, capturing a share of 6.8 percent, Bolat noted.

“Our e-GDP showed a real growth of 26 percent compound annual growth rate between 2019 and 2023,” he said.

The share of e-commerce in overall local trade increased from 4.8 percent in 2019 to 21 percent last year, Bolat said, noting that this increase was partially due to the pandemic’s impact on how trade was conducted.