Turkey’S Exports Decline By 19 Percent In May Year-On-Year

- Exports in May were down 19 percent from the same month in 2014, the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) said on June 1, amid fallout from an autoworkers’ strike in May and the decrease in euro-dollar parity.

Exports in May were announced at 10.8 billion dollars. In the first five months of the year, exports fell to 61.3 billion dollars with an 8.3 percent decline in total exports from last year.

For the last 12 months, exports declined 2.7 percent year-on-year to 151.7 billion dollars.

Announcing the May export figures, Turkish Exporters’ Assembly head Mehmet Büyükekşi said the negative effect of the parity was around 1.1 billion dollars in May and 5.7 billion dollars in the first five months of the year.

While automotive exports decreased to 1.48 billion dollars a 27.4 percent decline, in May from the same period of the previous year, the sector remained the top exporter, according to the TİM data.

The automotive sector was followed by the chemical products sector with 1.38 billion dollars a 13 percent decrease, and the confection sector with 13.5 billion dollars a 16.4 percent decrease, in May from the same months of the previous year.

In the first five months of the year, automotive exports decreased by 11.9 percent from the same period of 2014 to 8.52 billion dollars

The most exports were made to Germany, Britain, Iraq, Italy and the U.S. in May. The exports to Germany, however, decreased by 26 percent from the same month of last year, to Britain by 16 percent, to Iraq by 38 percent, to Italy by 22 percent and to the U.S. by 15 percent.

The highest increase in exports was seen in the exports to Singapore among the top 30 importers of Turkey by a 544 percent increase in May from the same month of the previous year.

As the TİM’s figures do not include gold exports, more dramatic decreases are seen in its figures than those from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit narrowed in January to 4.31 billion dollars a 37.5 percent decrease from the same month of the previous year, due to the decrease in oil prices and the rise in gold exports, mainly to Switzerland, as the Turkstat announced on May 29.