Türkiye’s exports climbed to reach an all-time high for the month of September, yet a much higher jump in imports, driven by surging energy costs, continued to widen the trade deficit, official data showed Tuesday.
Exports rose 9.2% to $22.6 billion, marking the best September yet, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said. Türkiye has thus managed to achieve record export figures in each of the first nine months of the year.
Meanwhile, imports surged 41.5% from a year ago to $33 billion on the back of soaring prices of energy and other commodities, Mehmet Muş told a meeting in the Black Sea province of Trabzon to announce the preliminary figures.
Energy imports climbed 115% to $9.56 billion in September, the highest ever monthly level. The data also showed that gold imports soared 543% to $3.11 billion.
The trade deficit leaped almost 300% year-over-year in September to nearly $10.4 billion, the data showed, as external dependence keeps Türkiye vulnerable to energy prices that rocketed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The shortfall rose from $2.6 billion in September 2021 and reached a record of $11.2 billion this August, the data showed.
Germany remained Türkiye’s top market with exports jumping 18.2% to over $2 billion. It was followed by the U.S., where sales jumped 0.7% to nearly $1.38 billion.
Iraq ranked third as it received $1.28 billion worth of Turkish goods, a 24.3% year-over-year increase.
Among others, exports to Saudi Arabia leaped 221% as Ankara and Riyadh moved to mend ties after a decade of tensions.
Sales to Lebanon and Switzerland jumped 102% and 71% on annual basis in September, respectively, the data showed.
Türkiye received most goods from Russia, its main energy supplier. Imports from Russia leaped 186.7% from a year ago to around $6.93 billion, the data showed.
Imports from China and Switzerland, the second and third biggest import markets in September, rose 28% and 764.2% to $3.71 billion and $2.18 billion, respectively.
Foreign sales from January through September jumped 17.1% from a year ago to $188.22 billion. Imports were up 40.8% to over $272 billion.
Muş said energy imports constituted around a third of total imports in the first nine months of the year. Gold imports jumped 150% year-over-year to $12.1 billion, he added.
The trade gap rose 158.5% year-over-year to $83.82 billion in the first nine months, the data showed.
Exports had ended 2021 at $225.4 billion, a figure that government and economists expected to reach $250 billion this year.
The 12-month rolling exports topped $252 billion as of last month, Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) chair Mustafa Gültepe said.
"We have achieved monthly export records in each of the last 12 months. The concerns of contraction in global trade is growing more and more. This achievement becomes much more meaningful despite the negative climate in the economies," Gültepe noted.
The chemicals industry topped the list among sectors with $2.9 billion worth of sales in September. Automotive followed with $2.7 billion, while ready-to-wear and steel industries reported $1.9 billion and $1.7 billion of exports, the data showed.