Turkish exporters hope to break records in 2018

By Ali Atar

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AA) - Turkey will break previous export records by crossing the medium-term progam's (MTP) $169 billion target in 2018, the country's largest exporters' association said Sunday.

Mehmet Buyukeksi, chairman for Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM) said 2017 was a spurt year and they had prepared a route map to exceed targets.

"The support from the government and the recovery of global economy was reflected in our exports," he said.

He added that MTP's export target for 2017 was $153.3 billion and it had been revised to $156.5 billion.

"We expect that Turkey's export will rise over 10 percent to $14 billion in December and we will overtake this target by reaching $157.3 billion," he said.

Turkey's exports amounted to $13.6 billion in November and $142.7 billion in the first 11 months of 2017, according to TIM's data.

Early November, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci had said that the country is expected to exceed its revised export target of $156.5 billion by the end of 2017.

He expressed that exports reflect Turkey's growth forcing international ratings bureaus to revise Turkey's growth estimate figures.

IMF, Fitch, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stankey, Nomura, the World Bank and Moody's improved their growth estimates for Turkey, after its economy grew by 5.1 percent in the second quarter.

Turkey also exceeded all growth estimates by reaching 11.1 percent growth rate in the third quarter of 2017.

He said that they believe Turkey's growth rate will be 5.5 percent in 2018.

* Gokhan Ergocun contributed to this report