Manufacturing forms growing share in exports

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 yesterday. Exports in September saw an 8.7 percent increase, reaching $11.8 billion. The data revealed that manufacturing has the largest share in Turkey’s exports with 93.3 percent. Meanwhile, 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 Customs and Trade Ministry.

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 ninemonth 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. The total amount of exports to top destination Germany was recorded at $1.2 billion in September.

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).

The manufacturing industry accounted for the biggest share of total exports, i.e. 93.3 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 3.9 percent while the exports shares of medium-high were 35.6 percent.

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.

The foreign trade balance recorded a deficit of $8.1 billion, marking an 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.