Turkey breaks new record in exports in 2019 with US$ 180.5 billion

Despite the decline in global trade growth, Turkey was among the countries that increased its exports the most. Trade Minister Ruhsar PEKCAN made a statement saying “Despite all the difficulties, Turkey has reached a record high in exports 2019 with US$ 180.5 billion corresponding to 2.4 percent increase over 2018”.

Turkey succeeded to set a new record in exports in 2019, despite trade wars, regional instability and growing global uncertainty along with Brexit.

Ruhsar PEKCAN, the minister of Commerce said, “”Despite all the difficulties and currency attacks, Turkey’s economy managed to enter a balancing process in 2019 and then back on the path of growth. We see the positive contribution of foreign trade in these positive developments in the country’s economy. Turkey was among the countries that increased its exports the most in 2019. As of the first three quarter data of 2019, our net exports contributed 4.7 percentage points to growth”.

The minister shared 2019 foreign trade figures in her presentation and also emphasized they would focus on the target to achieve US$ 190 billion in 2020, declared in the New Economy Program of the government.

On the other hand the minister also shared that imports had declined to US$ 210 billion corresponding to a decrease of 9 percent in 2019. Thus, the foreign trade deficit also declined by 44.9 percent to US$ 29 billion 926 million, in the same year. The minister emphasized that this had provided a positive contribution of US$ 24 billion 397 million to the foreign financing needs of the country.