Five cities account for more than half of Türkiye’s exports

ANKARA

Five cities accounted for 56.3 percent of Türkiye’s overall exports in May, according to data from the Trade Ministry.

Exports by companies based in Istanbul, the country’s financial and commercial center, increased by 14 percent year-on-year last month to $5.64 billion, which corresponded to 23.4 percent of Türkiye’s export revenues.

The northwestern industrial province of Kocaeli ranked second with $2.85 billion. Exports from this city rose by 15.7 percent compared with May last year. The city’s top exporting good was motor vehicles.

The western province of İzmir came third with exports amounting to $2.2 billion, or a 9.2 percent share in the country’s total export revenues. İzmir-based companies boosted their shipments to foreign markets by 15.5 percent year-on-year.

Another northwestern industrial province of Bursa saw exports rise more than 11 percent annually to $1.7 billion, while exports from the province of Tekirdağ, which ranked fifth in the list, declined by 0.9 percent from a year ago to $1.15 billion

The capital Ankara was the seventh most-exporting city with $883 million, down 8.7 percent compared with May last year.

Türkiye’s export revenues surged 11.4 percent year-on-year to $24.05 billion last month.

Between January and May, exports of 18 provinces exceeded the $1-billion mark, while 58 provinces managed to increase their export revenues on an annual basis, the ministry said in a statement.

In the first five months of 2024, exports amounted to $107 billion, exhibiting a year-on-year increase of 4.5 percent.

Imports were down 9.3 percent to $144 billion.

The country’s foreign trade deficit narrowed more than 34 percent year-on-year to $36.8 billion in the January-May period.