The Turkish government's program for the development of the local economy continues to develop successfully, despite the turmoil.
„Thanks to the program, we have strengthened the structural resilience of our economy. Despite all kinds of turmoil experienced, especially in the last three months, the program has not been shaken“, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during the 32nd regular general meeting of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM).
Inflation will reach 20% by the end of the current year, the Turkish president predicted. Annual inflation in our southern neighbor dropped to 35.4% in May, reaching the lowest level since the end of 2021. amid an ongoing period of disinflation amid tight monetary conditions, Daily Sabah recalls.
“Our reserves are starting to increase again. Confidence in the Turkish lira is also growing. Inflation is decreasing“, he said.
The Turkish central bank has set a target for inflation to fall to 24% by the end of 2025, with a wider range between 19% and 29%.
June data, to be announced later this week, is likely to show a further slowdown, according to recent surveys.
As for exports, Erdogan said that 2024 was a “record year in terms of exports“.
“We broke a record with exports of 262 billion USD. The number of companies exporting over 1 billion USD last year increased to 18. We will continue on the same path in 2025“, he continued.
“Turkey's export growth has changed not only in quantity but also in quality. In 2024, exports of medium-high and high-tech products exceeded 101 billion USD. We continue to work to expand our exports“, Erdoğan said.
“In 2024, we provided resources worth 24.7 billion Turkish liras to our companies in support of the export of goods and services. Factors such as increasing geopolitical tensions have reminded us once again that we need to increase the geographical diversity of our exports. Our goal is to increase our exports to distant countries to 50 billion USD and the share of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries in our total exports to 30% by 2028“,“ he noted.
The Turkish president also recalled that defense equipment exports reached a volume of 7.1 billion USD, citing last year's data, which marked a new record for the sector.
The Turkish economy expanded by 3.2% in 2024, also adding that it grew by 2% in the first quarter. "We have achieved continuous growth for 19 quarters," he said.
In his speech at the same event, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said that exports continue to increase despite major challenges.
"In five of the first six months of the year, we achieved more exports of goods than in the same months of the previous year. We continued to increase exports of services," he said.
At the beginning of his speech, Bolat recalled that the 2000s, which began with great excitement and hope, were subject to major conflicts and crises such as the global financial crisis, the global pandemic, wars and energy wars. However, he expressed the opinion that Turkey has maintained its political stability under the leadership of President Erdogan despite being at the center of these crises and a ring of fire, and also pointed out that significant developments have been achieved in industry, agriculture, services and trade with economic reforms, foreign policy successes and major projects implemented.
Turkey's national income has increased sixfold in dollar terms in the last 22 years, reaching 1.37 trillion USD, and the national income per capita has increased fourfold, approaching 16,000 USD. In this way, he said that Turkey has risen to the league of high-income countries according to the World Bank.
The minister also said that annual exports reached 265.5 billion USD. USD as of the end of May.
The top Turkish exporters in the services sector were Turkish Airlines (Thy), which was followed by other companies that primarily operate in the aviation industry, including Pegasus, Güneş Ekspres Aviation Inc., IGA Airport Operation Inc., and TAV Airports Holding Inc.
The top 10 companies that exported the most goods in 2024 were Ford Automotive, Toyota Automotive Industry Türkiye Inc., Türkiye Petroleum Refineries Inc. (Tüpraş), Kibar Horectrad Inc., Star Refinery, TGS Foreign Trade Inc., Oyak-Renault Factories.