Turkey to meet $170 billion export target this year, says Erdoğan

ISTANBUL

Developments suggest that Turkey will meet its $170 billion export revenue target set for the end of 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Dec. 21 at the “Top 500 Exporters” award ceremony held in Istanbul.

“Turkey has come a long way to this point. Once our exports had stood at $36 billion,” he added.

Erdoğan underlined that the revenues of the Top 500 exporters stood at $93 billion in 2017.

“In other words, those companies accounted for more than 50 percent of the country’s service exports,” he said.

Erdoğan also noted that over the past 16 years the Turkish economy has grown 5.7 percent on average and foreign direct investment inflows to the country exceeded $201 billion.

“Our national income surpassed $850 billion while per capita income reached $11,000. Based on purchasing power parity, the Turkish economy is the world’s 13th largest economy,” he said.

The president stressed the economy has successfully weathered the volatility that was triggered by the exchange rate and inflation in the past months.

“Some people tried to use those developments to spoil the mood. However, in October alone 7,160 new companies were launched,” he said.

Erdoğan also noted that the current account balance was improving.

Turkey’s current account balance posted a surplus in October for the third month in a row, the country’s Central Bank announced on Dec. 11.

In October, the country’s current account surplus amounted to $2.77 billion, improving from a deficit of $3.83 billion in the same month last year, according to the Turkish Central Bank’s balance of payments report.

Service industry’s exports

Speaking at the same ceremony, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said Turkey targets to double or triple its service trade surplus.

Back in 1984, the country’s service trade surplus was only around $1 billion, but this figure has increased gradually over the decades and supported the development of the Turkish economy, she noted.

“We ship not only goods but we also export TV dramas, software programs, movies, health services and our culture,” Pekcan said.

Turkey’s service export surplus has tripled to hit $20 billion in 2017 from 2002, when the corresponding figure was $7.9 billion.

“This happened thanks to the success in the fields of tourism and transportation. Now, our target is to increase the service trade surplus with the support from new leading industries. Revenues from this surplus are one of the major tools we use in the fight against the current account deficit,” the minister added.

Pekcan noted that Turkey was the 29th largest service exporting countries with a revenue of $43.7 billion in 2017.

“Turkey has the potential to climb the ranks to become one of the top 20 and 10 service exporting countries in the world,” Pekcan said.