Imam SUN
Foreign trade data for August were announced at the Southeastern Anatolian Exporters’ Association (GAİB) building in Gaziantep with the participation of Minister of Trade Mehmet Muş and Chairman of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Mustafa Gültepe and many exporters. In August, Turkey’s exports increased by 13 percent compared to the previous year and reached 21.3 billion dollars, while imports increased by 40.8 percent to 32.6 billion dollars. $8.7 billion of imports came from energy. Foreign trade volume increased by 28 percent compared to the previous year and reached 54 billion dollars.
While the export was 165.6 billion dollars in the first 8 months, the Turkish exporter achieved its annual export target by showing the success of exceeding 250 billion dollars in the last 12 months. Imports rose to 239.1 billion dollars in the 8-month period. While the foreign trade volume exceeded 404 billion dollars in 8 months of the year, the foreign trade deficit reached 73.4 billion dollars.
Export subsidies increased
Stating that as the government, they offered two important and comprehensive support packages to the exporters in the last month to give them the support they deserve, Minister of Trade Mehmet Muş continued his words as follows:
“In this context, we have commissioned consultancy and report expenses related to the preparation process of the market entry project, various expenses that multi-channel chain stores will make to grow in foreign markets, and supports for Export Consortiums that will mediate the opening of our SMEs to global markets. With the President’s Decision, we have made a tailor-made support package available to you for all stakeholders of the ecosystem, such as companies that take into account new business models in the field of e-export, which is becoming increasingly important, e-export consortia and retail e-commerce sites and marketplaces. And with these supports, Turkish products will be able to be delivered to foreign markets more easily. Support rates have been increased by 20 points for target countries, especially for countries within the scope of the Far Countries Strategy, which we announced in July.”
Increasing exports bring the need for financing
Stating that the negative effects of the current situation in the Euro/Dollar exchange rate continued this month, TİM Chairman Mustafa Gültepe said, “The negative impact of the decrease in the parity on exports exceeded 1.4 billion dollars this month and 8 billion dollars in the first 8 months. This situation in the parity is not expected to change in the short term. Therefore, we, as exporters, must reconstruct our exports to our main market, the European Union, under these conditions.”
Gültepe said that access to finance is the most basic need due to the continuation of the acceleration in exports, and continued as follows: “All these bring new financing needs. We can only evaluate the opportunities that arise in such periods in global trade with a strong financing. In the new period, we will continue our efforts to improve our exports on the axis of sustainability and digitalization.”
Russian market makes the exporter smile
The top 5 exporting sectors in August are respectively; Chemicals with 2.9 billion dollars, automotive with 2.3 billion dollars, ready-made clothing with 1.84 billion dollars, steel with 1.82 billion dollars and electrical-electronics with 1.3 billion dollars in exports. The top 5 exporting countries are Germany, USA, Iraq, United Kingdom and Italy. Russia, which was sanctioned by the US and EU countries due to the war, created new opportunities for exporters. Exports to the country, where exports increase every month, increased by 110 percent in August compared to the same month of the previous year.
Highlights of August
. 21 out of 27 sectors increased their exports.
. The unit export value increased by 17 percent compared to the same month of the previous year and rose to $1.46.
. Exports were made to 220 countries and regions, with an increase in exports to 151 countries.
. 53 provinces increased their exports.
. For the first time this month, 828 companies joined the export family. These companies provided an export contribution of 79.1 million dollars.