Services exports on course to top $100 billion this year: Minister

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s services exports are on course to surpass $100 billion this year, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said, adding that the country aims to increase its share in global services exports to 2 percent by 2028.

Revenues from services exports climbed from $61.5 billion in 2021 to $89 billion last year with a 45 percent increase, Bolat said at an event in Istanbul.

Services exports grew on average 4.5 percent in the world in the past 10 years, whereas the annual increase averaged 7.3 percent over the same period, he added.

The global size of the industry was around $7 trillion in 2022 and Türkiye’s share was 1.3 percent.

Türkiye captured a 1.03 percent share in global goods trade, which reached $25 trillion last year, Bolat noted.

“Our goal is to increase our share in the world's goods exports to 1.2 percent or $375 billion, and to reach $200 billion in services exports, which will correspond to 2 percent of global services exports by 2028,” Bolat said.

In the January-September period of 2023, services exports recorded a 14.3 percent increase from a year ago to amount to $75 billion, while the 12-month rolling revenues from services exports reached $98.3 billion, according to Bolat.

“Hopefully our services exports will surpass $100 billion this year.”

Bolat stressed the success of the Turkish TV series sector, saying that Turkish productions reach 800 million viewers across the world.

“The sector introduces Türkiye, its cities, culture and food as wells as holiday destinations, to the world. Our TV series and film industry serves as soft power to boost to a wide range of sectors, including tourism, transportation, shopping and trade.”

He also underlined that IT and software sector has made a big progress with its exports reaching around $3 billion. The industry aims to increase its export revenues to $30 billion in five to aix years, according to Bolat.

Services sector is making a great contribution in reducing Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit, the minister added.

The current account balance outlook has been improving thanks to the increase in goods exports, which started in July and with the contribution of services exports, Bolat said.

In September, the current account posted around $2 billion of surplus, which marked the largest surplus in the past 23 months, he noted, adding that October appeared to be promising.

“Because the foreign trade gap was $6.7 billion in that month. And we made a good start into November in terms of trade.”

Bolat expects the current account deficit to remain below last year’s $48 billion in 2023.