Turkish exports up in first 9 months of 2017

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's exports in the first nine months of 2017 amounted to around $115 billion -- a 10.5 percent rise compared with the same period in 2016, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Tuesday.

The country's foreign trade volume reached $284 billion between January and September this year, marking a 13.4 percent annual increase, according to provisional data produced by TurkStat and the Ministry of Customs and Trade.

Turkish imports climbed 15.5 percent to around $169 billion, amounting to a foreign trade deficit of $53.8 billion over the same period. Official data showed the percentage of imports covered by exports was 68.1 in the nine-month period.

TurkStat said Germany was Turkey's top export market, at $11 billion, or a 9.6 percent share of total exports, while $53.6 billion worth of Turkish exports were delivered to EU28 countries from January to September this year.

Among other major partners, the United Arab Emirates received $7.8 billion worth of Turkish exports, followed by Iraq ($7 billion), the U.K. ($7 billion) and the U.S. ($6.5 billion).

In the same period, Turkey imported most from China ($17 billion), Germany ($15 billion) and Russia ($13.9 billion).

- Manufacturing, biggest share of total exports

The manufacturing industry accounted for the biggest share of total exports, i.e. 94.1 percent, followed by agriculture and forestry (3 percent), and mining and quarrying (2.3 percent).

The share of high technology products in manufacturing industry exports was 3.8 percent while the exports shares of medium-high and low technology products were 34 and 33.3 percent, respectively.

Regarding imports, intermediate goods represented the lion's share with 73.9 percent, reaching $125 billion, followed by capital goods (13.8 percent, $23.3 billion) and consumption goods (12 percent, $20.2 billion).

TurkStat data revealed that manufacturing industries represented largest share in Turkey's imports (81.5 percent, $137.7 billion), of which $56.4 billion were medium-high tech imports, followed by medium-low tech ($45.4 billion), high tech ($20.2 billion) and low tech ($15.7 billion) imports.

In September 2017 compared to the same month of last year, Turkey's exports rose 8.7 percent to $11.8 billion while imports climbed to $19.9 billion -- a 30.6 percent hike .

Foreign trade balance recorded a deficit of $8.1 billion, marking a 85 percent increase year-on-year, while the percentage of imports covered by exports was 59.3, falling from 71.3 percent in September 2016.

Turkey's exports reached their highest level in 2014 -- $157.6 billion -- and stood at $143.8 billion in 2015 while the value was $142.5 billion last year, according to TurkStat.

Over the past three years, the country's foreign trade deficit has been diminishing gradually, at $84.5 billion in 2014, $63.4 billion in 2015, and $56 billion last year.