Announcing the foreign trade figures for July, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat stated that exports increased by 13.8 percent in July, reaching 22.5 billion dollars, which is a record.
Exports in the last 12 months were 261.5 billion dollars.
Highlights from Minister Bolat’s statement are as follows:
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We are sure that if the signs of growth and development in the world economy start to increase, we will reach much better figures in exports.
This is the development and growth rates that our country has recorded since 2003, which was an annual average of 5.4 percent, and we closed last year with 4.5 percent. This 4.5 also allowed us to be in first place in the European Union and second place in the G-20, and thank God, Turkey has now risen to the league of countries with a national income of more than 1 trillion dollars. We closed last year with a national income of 1 trillion 118 billion dollars, our national income per capita increased to 13,110 dollars, and reaching 14,000-15,000 dollars is not a dream, God willing, we will achieve that in a few years.
After the first quarter growth this year, we increased to 1 trillion 158 billion dollars of national income. Our share of global goods exports reached 1.08 percent. This figure was 0.49 percent 21 years ago. Our share of global services exports was 0.89 percent 21 years ago, and reached 1.29 percent last year. If you notice, the line always continues upwards, upwards.
Now, of course, when we are going to talk about the July export figures, I would like to proudly state that we broke the highest July export record in history! We achieved a monthly increase of 13.8 percent compared to July of last year. Last year, it was 19 billion 800 million dollars. Thus, we achieved an increase of 2.7 billion dollars in one month. This corresponds to 13.8 percent. We sincerely thank our exporters and offer our congratulations.
Another very important record news, annualized, what is the total export of the last 12 months? 261.5 billion dollars… We broke the record in the history of the Republic with 255.4 billion dollars in December. We reached 260.1 billion dollars in May. Last month, due to the nine-day long holiday and calendar effect, there was a slight decline in our exports and imports, it was normal. But we closed that gap in July and went into surplus. We reached exactly 261.5 billion dollars. This means that our total goods exports increased by 3.4 percent in the last year. A net increase of 8.7 billion dollars was achieved in the last year. What was our target? 267 billion dollars of goods exports and 110 billion dollars of services exports at the end of the OVP year. We are progressing towards our target. Five months left, from August to December.
According to our calculations, God willing, that is, if there are no new tensions in the international conjuncture, a state of war or setbacks in other geography where there are important market opportunities for Turkey, we are loyal to our target of 267 billion dollars by saving and saving like a piggy bank. We will see this picture in December.
We made a calculation like this, if we can add approximately 750 million dollars to 1 billion dollars every month to last year’s figures, it will not be difficult to achieve this goal. It is not easy, we will display this struggle together with our exporters. Interest rate reductions in the European Union, the US and the UK are expected to accelerate as of September in the fall and with the recovery process in these countries, our export market opportunities will increase.
Yes, after these two record news, I will now move on to the details. Another very good news, the decreasing trend in imports continues. Here, we managed to decrease by 7.9 percent, or 8 percent, in our July imports. Here, the imports that are necessary, mandatory and required for the country are already being made. Here, we are particularly fighting against the illegal imports that see Turkey as a market and that could put Turkey’s industries in a difficult situation, and as a result of these efforts, thank God, there was an 8 percent decrease in our monthly imports, in other words, we saved 2.6 billion dollars and it remained below 30 billion dollars. 29.7 billion dollars…
Now of course, the foreign trade increase decreased by 42 percent in July, falling to 7.2 billion dollars. How much was it in July last year? It was 12.5 billion dollars. Thus, we saved approximately 5.3 billion dollars in foreign exchange reserves. While the export-import coverage ratio was 61 percent in July last year, it increased by 14.5 points to 75.7 percent in July this year. This is also an important positive development.
Now of course these are the developments in our exports on a monthly basis, this year, we had monthly declines in June and March, we were at par in April. Apart from that, in January, February, May and July, we achieved export increases well above the previous year for four months.
The seven-month figure is very important, when we look at the seven-month figures, friends, in the first seven months of this year, we reached 148.8 billion dollars in exports. The figure in the first seven months of last year was 142.9. This means, in the first seven months, dear friends, we achieved a 4.1 percent increase.
When we look at imports, we have actually achieved an 8.4 percent decline in the first seven months, our imports in the first seven months have fallen to 198.6 billion dollars. In other words, in the first seven months of this year, we have increased our total exports by 4.1 percent to 148.8 billion dollars. In the first seven months, our imports have fallen by 8.4 percent to 198.6 billion dollars. In other words, our imports have decreased by 18 billion dollars in the first seven months.
Now let’s come to our deficit, our foreign trade deficit. In the first seven months, we have decreased by 32.5 percent to approximately 50 billion dollars. In other words, we have regressed to a foreign trade deficit of 49.8 billion dollars, roughly 50 billion dollars. The deficit in the first seven months of last year was 74 billion dollars. In other words, our foreign trade deficit has decreased by 24 billion dollars. What this means, my friends, is that our foreign exchange reserves have increased. We have started to accumulate healthy foreign exchange reserves and foreign exchange, we have increased employment with more exports, and with the decrease in imports, we have ensured that local, national producing industries produce more, increase their production for both the domestic market and the foreign market, and increase their employment. Thus, Turkey has reached a total employment figure of 33 million people as of May and the unemployment rate has also decreased to 8.4 percent, the lowest figures in the last 12 years. Let me tell you the picture in the first seven months in terms of the export-import coverage ratio, 75 percent, 74.9. Last year, this figure was 65.9 percent. In other words, we increased from 66 percent to 75 percent in goods trade.
When we look at the annual figures, we were exporting 252.840 billion dollars in 2023. Now we have increased to 261.5 billion dollars. We have achieved a net increase of approximately 8.6 billion dollars in our exports. If you look at our imports, they have decreased by 30 billion dollars in one year. From July to July. I will tell you another figure, our total foreign trade volume is 605 billion dollars, and the export-import coverage ratio is 76 percent in the last year.”
