Trade survey foresees rise in imports, exports

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan says he expects $150 billion in Turkish exports for the year 2012. DHA photo

The Import Expectations Index and the Export Expectations Index both went up for the second quarter of 2012, according to the Foreign Trade Expectations Survey for the quarter released by the Economy Ministry yesterday.

The Export Expectations Index increased by 17.1 points from 97.9 to 115 for the second quarter of 2012 and the Import Expectations Index also witnessed an 11.1 point increase from 104.6 to 115.7.
“We will easily be able to achieve $150 billion in exports,” said Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan in a written statement following the release of the results. He noted that importers’ expectations that they would import more to Europe showed that the affects of the European economic crisis are waning and that the European markets are bouncing back.

In the second quarter, the Export Expectations Survey predicted that exports to all country groupings would go up, in comparison with last quarter, when the survey only expected exports to Africa and the Turkic republics to go up.

Imports from Asia strong

Similarly, the Import Expectations Survey predicted that imports from Europe, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, other Asian countries and the U.S. would increase compared to previous quarters. While in the last quarter, survey takers expected a drop in imports from the Middle East and Africa, this quarter expectations were up once again. The survey also found that the greatest issues facing firms were high energy costs, followed by high raw material costs and high transportation costs.

Minister Çağlayan is currently in the U.S. meeting with businessmen to promote Turkey’s new incentive system.