Exports climb more than 7 percent in October

ANKARA

Türkiye’s exports amounted to $22.9 billion in October, rising 7.4 percent from the same month of last year, data from the Trade Ministry have shown.

Twelve-month rolling exports hit $254.8 billion last month, surpassing the record $254.2 billion of exports at the end of 2022, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said.

Last month’s numbers were the all-time-high October exports, he added.

The upward trend in exports, which started in July despite all challenges, continued in August and October, Bolat said, recalling that the medium-term program sets the export target for 2023 at $255 billion.

“Hopefully, we will exceed this target.”

Some 115,000 exporters have shipped 12,600 products to more than 200 countries with over 60 percent of exports to go to developed nations’ markets, according to the minister.

Türkiye targets to generate $267 billion in export revenues next year, while the target for 2026 is $302 billion.

Imports grew 1.3 percent in October to stand at $29.6 billion, the Trade Ministry data showed.

Consequently, Türkiye posted $6.7 billion of foreign trade deficit last month, down by 14.9 percent from a year ago.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio improved from 72.9 percent in October 2022 to 77.3 percent last month.

Excluding energy, the export/import coverage ratio was higher at 87.7 percent, the ministry said in a statement, adding that when energy and gold were included the ratio was 92.6 percent.

As was the case in the previous months, Germany was Türkiye’s largest export market.

Last month, shipments to Germany amounted to $1.76 billion.

The German and the eurozone economies contracted in the third quarter, said Bolat, adding that expectations indicate that low demand will continue for another period.

“According to the IMF, Germany will be 0.5 percent, while the average growth rate in the eurozone will be 0.7 percent.”

Iraq ranked second at $1.3 billion, followed by the U.S. at $1.25 billion.

Türkiye’s imports from China and Russia amounted to $3.76 billion and $3.29 billion, respectively, while imports from Germany were $2.6 billion.

Consumer goods imports soared nearly 37 percent in October year-on-year to $4.73 billion. Intermediate goods imports dropped 12.6 percent to $20.3 billion and capital goods imports rose 37 percent to $4.6 billion.

In the first ten months of 2023, exports inched up 0.3 percent from a year ago to $210 billion, while the annual increase in imports was 1.2 percent to $304 billion.

The foreign trade deficit increased by 3.2 percent to $93.95 billion in the January-October period.