Türkiye’s exports rose by 9.2 percent in September from a year ago to touch $22.6 billion, data from the Trade Ministry have shown, marking an all-time-high September figure.
The annual increase in the country’s imports was 41.5 percent to $33 billion, leading to a foreign trade deficit of $10.4 billion, which was 298 percent higher than the trade gap in the same month of 2021.
The export-import coverage ratio sharply declined from 88.8 percent in September 2021 to 68.5 percent last month, while the country’s total trade volume increased by 26.3 percent year-on-year to $55.6 billion.
Excluding energy and gold imports, the export-import coverage ratio was 100.9 percent, Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said, adding exports in the Turkish Lira rose by 59 percent from a year ago.
As was the case in the previous months, Germany was the largest export market, with deliveries to this country rising 18.2 percent on an annual basis to $2 billion. Exports to the U.S. grew 0.7 percent to $1.38 billion, while Iraq ranked third at $1.28 billion, up 24.3 percent year-on-year.
Türkiye boosted its exports to the EU by 4.8 percent from September last year to $8.9 billion.
The manufacturing sector’s exports amounted to $21.5 billion, accounting for 95 percent of the country’s all export revenues, while the agriculture sector’s share was 2.6 percent, or $598 million.
On the imports front, Russia topped the list last month. Imports from Russia soared 187 percent year-on-year to $6.9 billion. Türkiye increased its imports from China by 28 percent to $3.7 billion, while imports from Switzerland leaped 764 percent to $2.2 billion.
The shares of raw materials and capital goods were 81 percent, or $26.5 billion, and 11 percent, or $3.6 billion, respectively. Consumer goods imports, which rose 31 percent from a year ago, accounted for 8 percent of Türkiye’s overall imports, standing at $2.75 billion.
In the first nine months of the year, exports grew 17.1 percent year-on-year to $188 billion, while imports rose by 40.8 percent, reaching $272 billion.
Consequently, the foreign trade deficit widened 158.5 percent from January-September 2021 to $83.8 billion.
In the latest Medium-Term Program, covering 2023-2025, the government projects that exports will be $255 billion this year and increase to $265 billion in 2023. They will rise further to $305 billion in 2025, according to government estimates.
The program forecasts that the country’s foreign trade deficit will shrink from $105 billion in 2022 to $80 billion next year as the energy import bill is expected to decline from $103.5 billion to $85 billion.
The government projects that the foreign trade deficit will further decline to $79 billion in 2025.
Hurriyet Daily News