The Turkish Statistics Institute said that Turkey's exports increased by 11.5% in 2010, nearing USD 114 billion.
According to the January to December 2010 period foreign trade figures released by TurkStat, the rise in Turkish exports was 11.5% in 2010, reaching USD 113.9 billion. Moreover, Turkish imports also climbed in 2010, with an increase of 31.6% to USD 185.9 billion. According to these figures, the foreign trade deficit rose by 84.5% over 2009 and stands at USD 71.6 billion.
The automotive sector in Turkey, often considered the driving force of the country's economy, ranked first in the exportation of industrial products. The sector' exports reached USD 13.8 billion, while the difference between exports and imports was a surplus of USD 393.6 million. The machinery sector's exports surged by 14.8%, numbering USD 9.3 billion, while the iron steel sector's exported products totaled USD 8.8 billion. Looking at sub groups of the most imported products in 2010, the TurkStat data show that 70.8% of total imports were intermediate goods.
Importation of these goods went up by 32% as compared to 2009. A total of 15.5% of Turkey's imports were investment goods, while consumption goods' share was 13.3% of the country's total imports.
Germany was again the country importing the most products from Turkey, USD 11.4 billion. This country was followed by the UK (USD 7.2 billion), Italy (USD 6.5 billion), Iraq (USD 6 billion) and France (USD 6 billion). The highest increase in Turkey's exports was to Iran, a rise of 50.3% to reach USD 3.1 billion in 2010. On the other hand most of Turkey's imports came from oil and natural gas exporter Russia (USD 21.6 billion), followed by Germany (USD 17.5 billion), China (USD 17.2 billion), the US (USD 12.3 billion), Italy (USD 10.2 billion) and France (USD 8.2 billion). Imports from Iran increased by a tremendous 124.5%, nearing USD 7.6 billion in 2010 due to Turkey's increasing need for oil and natural gas.
Mr Zafer Çağlayan foreign trade minister of Turkey had previously shared the December figures of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly at a press conference in Ankara on January 3rd 2010, saying Turkish exports climbed 11.3% in 2010 to USD 113.6 billion, surpassing the government's target of USD 111.7 billion.
Mr Çağlayan had noted that Turkish exports, which were more regional in the past, have become more stably structured since all of the provinces had started exporting. He added that "There were only five provinces [İstanbul, İzmir, Ankara, Bursa and Kocaeli] in Turkey that surpassed an annual export figure of USD 1 billion in 2002. Currently the provinces Gaziantep, Manisa, Denizli, Sakarya, Hatay, Adana, Mersin, Kayseri and Trabzon also joined the group of provinces with more than USD 1 billion in exports. Moreover, there were only 21 provinces with exports above USD 100 million in 2002. Now there are 44."
(Sourced from www.todayszaman.com)
