Exporters request loan term extension

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The Turkish Exporters Assembly head Büyükekşi (C) says they are asking that the Central Bank raise the rediscount credit period from 120 days to one year. AA photo

Turkish exporters are asking the Central Bank to give year-long rediscount credit instead of credit of just 120 days, the head of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) said May 14.

“A protocol was signed between the Factoring Association, [state-run] Eximbank and TİM during the Uludağ Economy Summit [in March]. We are requesting that the Central Bank raise the credit period from 120 days to one year for the rediscount loan given by the Central Bank via Eximbank,” said Mehmet Büyükekşi.

Big companies satisfy their foreign financing needs via private banks and Eximbank, said Büyükekşi during a meeting in which the TİM Exporters’ Tendency Research was announced to the public. Büyükekşi said 502 exporting firms’ mid-level and senior executives participated in the study.

Büyükekşi said companies’ foreign financing needs rose from 30 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to 42 percent today.

Some 45.2 percent of the companies will need foreign financing in the second quarter of the year, he added.

“Some 62.4 percent of the companies’ turnover consisted of exports in the first quarter of this year,” he said.

However, exporting companies’ input costs increased by 56.8 percent in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier, while 41.6 percent of the companies’ profitability in exports showed a decrease.

Büyükekşi also said 33.9 percent of the companies entered new markets in the first quarter.