The FINANCIAL — Turkey's exports increased by 4.62 percent in October over the same month of the previous year, reaching $9.95 billion, numbers released yesterday by the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TİM) showed, according to Today's Zaman.
TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi announced the export figures, which mark the first upswing since October 2008, in a written statement on Sunday. According to Büyükekşi, exports amounted to $78.82 billion in the first 10 months the year, marking a decline of 29.52 percent compared to the same period of last year. The rolling 12-month average as of the end of October stood at $94.7 billion, indicating a fall of 28.47 percent. The industrial sector, which was responsible for 83.88 percent of all exports, earned $8.34 billion from its sales abroad, registering an increase of 6.47 percent over the same month of 2008.
The agriculture sector, on the other hand, accounted for 13.97 percent of all exports and posted an income of $1.39 billion, down 3.06 percent from October 2008. Mining sector exports saw an even larger drop in October, falling to $214.77 million, a 10.22 percent year-on-year contraction.
Among industrial subsectors, motor vehicles enjoyed the best position, with 17.78 percent of exports. Ready-wear and apparel manufacturers were responsible for 13.17 percent of all exports, followed by iron and steel products with 11.06 percent.
Motor vehicle exports rose 17.54 percent last month over the same month of 2008, while the rate of increase for ready-wear and apparel exports was 21.58 percent.
The subsector that enjoyed the largest increase in exports was the olive and olive oil industry with 41.96 percent. The cut flower sector ranked second at 35.81 percent.
Tobacco manufacturers sustained the largest blow in sales as their earnings from exports dropped 51.46 percent year on year. Meat, milk and other food products of animal origin followed with 16.48 percent.
Last month, the top 10 consumers of Turkish exports were Germany, France, Italy, Britain, Iraq, Spain, Russia, the US, Romania and Libya. Germany’s share was 9.78 percent of total exports. France had a 6.67 percent share, whereas Italy’s share was 6.62 percent.
İstanbul was once again responsible for the largest share of exports in October, accounting for 47.52 percent of the total. Bursa, Kocaeli, İzmir, Ankara, Gaziantep, Manisa, Sakarya, Denizli and Hatay were the other top performers.
Assessing the export figures, Büyükekşi said he was pleased to see the emergence of a rising trend in exports. “We had sustained a serious contraction in our sales abroad — as much as one-third of our total exports — in 2009 owing to falling external demand amid the global economic crisis, falling commodity prices and increasing problems with foreign trade. But October has become a turning point for us. The contraction has finally halted, and the process of exiting the crisis has begun. We expect the increase in exports to continue in the coming months,” he said.
While noting that it is too early to claim that the crisis has ended and that a period of growth has been entered, he said it has become obvious that a global recovery has begun.
Büyükekşi pointed to concerns among exporters that the central bank will drag its feet in continuing to slash the benchmark interest rate in coming days. He said reluctance to cut interest rates further while the non-financial sector is still healing its wounds would have wide-reaching negative results on the overall economy.
“The bank must go on reducing interest rates while staying on the safe side because banks still are maintaining their strict stance on extending loans, and above all exporters deserve better interest rates in this new period, much more than in previous periods,” he argued.
The primary reason for the rally in export figures was success in the diversification of trade with neighboring and nearby countries, Büyükekşi argued. Although the EU still had the largest share in total exports in the January-October period, its share fell to 48.2 percent from above 50 percent. Meanwhile, the share of exports to the Middle East, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is on the rise, he pointed out.
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