Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) President Mustafa Gültepe says the export revenue target this year has been set at $275 billion.
If exports had not slowed in the last three months of 2022, export revenues could have been much higher than $254 billion, Gültepe told Hürriyet.
He is optimistic that economic activity will recover in Europe, the U.S. and other countries. “The second half of 2022 will be brighter for the Turkish economy,” Gültepe said.
He recalled that exports grew more than 30 percent in 2021, and similar increases were recorded in the first seven months of last year. “But, the pace of export growth eased from double-digits to single-digits in the last three months of 2022. However, despite this weakness, export revenues exceeded the $250 billion target set for last year.”
According to data from the Trade Ministry, Turkiye’s exports grew nearly 13 percent in 2022 from 2021 to amount to $254.2 billion.
Gültepe noted that the textile and apparel industries suffer first from any contraction in the markets.
“We are now seeing such signs. The ferrous and non-ferrous industry is also facing problems. Demand is weak for jewelry and carpets. Half of our 25 to 26 sectors report decline while the other half of the industries see increases.”
The performance of the automotive, defense and cement sectors has been strong, he added.
Gültepe linked the poor export performance toward the end of last year to weak demand from Europe, which absorbs around 50 percent of Turkiye’s exports.
“Also, during this period, costs declined around the globe as problems related to freight and transport were largely resolved, which dealt a blow to our competitive advantages. We could not offer competitive prices due to the pressure from the foreign exchange rates,” Gültepe explained.
The aim is to make Turkiye one of the world’s 10 top exporting countries,he said, noting that the share of Turkiye’s in the global trade is 1 percent while the export revenues per kilogram are around $1.5.
“In textile, our share is 2 percent, while we are the world leader in hazelnut and ranked second globally in apricot and raisin. The share of the carpet sector in the global trade is 17.6 percent,” he said.
Last year, Turkiye’s imports grew more than 34 percent from 2021 to $364 billion. Consequently, the country’s foreign trade deficit widened by 138 percent to $110 billion.
In December 2022 alone, exports increased by 3.1 percent to $22.9 billion from a year ago, while imports were up 14.6 percent to $33.3 billion. The foreign trade deficit rose 52 percent to $10.4 billion.