Türkiye's exports increased 7.4% year-over-year to $22.9 billion (TL 651.19 billion), registering an all-time high for October, while its trade gap shrank by 15% last month, a senior official announced on Monday.
"In October, our exports increased by 7.4% compared to the same month of the previous year and reached $22.9 billion. This marked the highest export value for October," said Trade Minister Ömer Bolat.
"In general, despite all the difficulties and problems we have faced, our exports have continued to rise every month after July, following August and September," he added.
Emphasizing the significance of export targets, Bolat, in a joint news conference with Mustafa Gültepe, the head of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM), recalled the government's year-end export target of $255 billion, $267 billion in 2024 and $302.2 billion in 2026.
"For the period of January-October 2023, our exports reached $210.1 billion, surpassing the export value for the same period of the previous year by 0.3%," Bolat noted.
"When we look at the significant categories, we have seen remarkable performance in the export of motor vehicles, reaching $25.1 billion in the January-October period, with a 17.8% increase. Exports of boilers and machinery reached $21 billion, with a 14.1% increase. The export of electrical machinery and equipment also rose by 15.5%, reaching $12.6 billion. The encouraging aspect here is increased value-added exports," he explained.
Furthermore, Bolat pointed out the positive performance of service exports, saying: "We will surpass the $100 billion mark this year. Our goal in the 12th Development Plan is set at $200 billion by 2028. We aim to capture 2% of global service exports."
Türkiye's 12-month rolling exports reached $254.8 billion as of this October, exceeding the record-high figure of $254.2 billion registered at the end of 2022, the minister informed.
On the other hand, the imports surged by 1.3% in October, reaching $29.6 billion, he said.
"Thus, the country's foreign trade gap shrank 15% to $6.7 billion in October," Bolat noted.
The exports-to-imports coverage ratio gained 4.4 percentage points to reach 77.3% last month.
Recalling the energy imports that stood at $98 billion in 2022, the minister also pointed to the slowdown in this regard and the decrease in gold imports since August owing to measures implemented by the Treasury, Finance Ministry and Trade Ministry.
"This year, our energy imports amounted to $57.3 billion in the first 10 months. We have a monthly average energy bill of $5.2 billion, and we want to complete energy imports without exceeding the figure of $70 billion," he explained.
"Gold imports, in October, realized at approximately $2 billion, with an annual decrease of 36%," he noted.
The trade deficit, meanwhile, decreased by 15% to $6.7 billion last month, the data showed, bringing the deficit in the January to October period to $94 billion. In the same period of 2022, the trade deficit stood at $91 billion.
"When we look at both the 10-month and 12-month data, we have achieved the highest export values of all time," Gültepe said during the meeting.
He noted that the automotive sector ranked first in October's exports with $3.087 billion, followed by the chemical industry with $2.7 billion, ready-to-wear with $1.5 billion, electronics with $1.4 billion and the steel sector with $1.3 billion.
Providing information on the list of the countries to which the most exports were made, Gültepe noted Germany, Iraq and the United States led in this regard, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Italy.
He also announced that export records were broken to seven countries, including Poland, Libya, Algeria, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Nigeria.