Türkiye sets record October exports at $23.6 billion,

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Türkiye's exports reached $23.6 billion in October, marking a historic high for the month, Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat announced on Saturday.

Speaking at an event organized by the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) in Türkiye's Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Bolat highlighted that the country’s exports grew by 3.6% compared to October last year.

"Türkiye has broken export records in 10 of the last 15 months," Bolat noted, underscoring the sustained growth in trade.

Meanwhile, the country’s imports decreased slightly by 0.1% to $29.36 billion in October, he reported.

As a result, Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit fell by $1.1 billion, narrowing to $5.7 billion compared to the same month in the previous year.

For the January-October period, Türkiye’s exports totaled $216.4 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year, Bolat said. During the same period, imports dropped by 7.2% to $282 billion, contributing to a 30.4% reduction in the trade deficit, which narrowed to $65.6 billion.

Bolat also noted an improvement in the export-import coverage ratio, which rose by 7.7 percentage points to 76.7% over the first 10 months of the year.

In terms of the 12-month period from October 2023 to October 2024, Türkiye’s rolling exports reached $262.3 billion, marking a 3.1% annual increase and setting another historic high.

Over the same period, imports totaled $340 billion, a reduction of $27 billion or 7.4%. This brought the foreign trade deficit down by 32%, from $112.8 billion to $77.7 billion, Bolat added.