Turkey's Exports Plunged By 9.8 Percent In April

- Turkey's exports fell by 9.8 percent to 11.82 billion dollars in April, against the same month in the previous year, despite lira depreciation at around 30 percent on annual basis, according to the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TEM) data released on Friday.

Exports fell by 8.1 percent to 48.95 billion dollars in the first four months of the year, against the same period in 2014 and fell by 1.6 percent to 153 billion dollars in last 12 months at the end of April.

Automotive sector led Turkey's exports in April with 1.84 billion dollars, despite 11.6 percent plunge on its exports on annual basis, followed by chemicals sector with 1.44 billion dollars and ready-wear sector 1.39 billion dollars, exports of which also fell in April on annual basis, by 3.0 and 9.9 percent respectively.

The highest rise in April was at hazelnut exports by 64.6 percent, followed by tobacco exports with 49.6 percent and ship and yacht building sector exports with 35.9 percent.

The leading markets of Turkish exports in April were Germany, United Kingdom, Iraq and Italy where exports fell by 9.6 percent, 8.1 percent, 23.4 percent,12.4 percent respectively, while exports to United States rose by 1.8 percent.

"Unfortunately our exports could not make a good start to the current year. The dollar's surge globally and fall in the euro/dollar rate pressure our exports. The monthly nagative impact of the eruo/dollar rate on our exports rose to 1.5 billion dollars, which fell 22 percent to 1.08 in April, from 1.38 it was in the same month of the last year" Mehmet Büyükekşi, President of Turkish Exporters Assembly said.