Turkish exports rebound in November: Business group

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Turkish exports surged close to five percent annually in November, the country’s main exporters’ association said on Dec. 1.

Exports in November rose to $11.95 billion from $11.38 billion in the same month last year, rising 4.6 percent, according to a report released by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly.  
      
This figure had declined to $11.7 billion from $12.4 billion in the same month last year, slipping by 4.6 percent in October.        

But the report showed total exports in the first 11 months of the year went down 2.4 percent compared to the same period last year, hitting $129 billion.        

The report came one day after the official Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) report for October, which showed that Turkish exports fell by 3 percent year-on-year in October while imports rose by 0.5 percent over the same period. Exports fell by 2.8 percent to $120.4 billion in the first 10 months of 2016, according to TÜİK.

“We will see our export growth, which turned positive in November, to keep surging as a decline in commodity and oil prices came to an end and exports to neighboring countries, especially Russia, started to recover,” head of the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly, Mehmet Büyükekşi, said.       

With regards to the possible impact of sharp depreciation seen in the Turkish Lira, Büyükekşi said although even a cheap lira is positive for competitiveness of Turkish goods in markets, the predictability of the lira’s value was equally important.

“The more important issue for us, over the lira’s value, is its predictability."

“Our manufacturers and exporters suffer from sharp volatility in foreign exchange rates.“