Trade Minister Ömer Bolat on Tuesday acknowledged the positive trend in the current account balance, a day after the data from the country's central bank revealed a nearly $1.9 billion (TL 54.3 billion) surplus, citing they are "steadfast" in efforts to achieve a lasting improvement through policies implemented.
"We are steadfast in our efforts to achieve a lasting improvement in the current account through our support for increasing the export of goods and services and our import policies that focus on supporting domestic production. The current account recorded a surplus of $1.9 billion in September, reaching the highest level in the last 23 months," the minister said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
"The 12-month rolling current account deficit has declined from $56.6 billion to $51.7 billion," he added.
A larger-than-expected surplus in September, which stood at nearly $1.9 billion, came in after an upwardly revised $357 million deficit in August and $3.02 billion in September 2022, according to the report shared by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) on Monday.
The current account (gold and energy excluded) recorded a $7.12 billion surplus in the month was the largest in the past 11 months, Bolat said.
"Excluding the gold and energy, the surplus amounting to $38 billion was recorded in the last 12 months," the minister added.
He further said that the service exports figure in the 12 months to September meanwhile reached $98.3 billion figure while the tourism revenue increased to $46.9 billion on an annual basis, thus breaking the records.
The services exports with an increase of 8.6% on a yearly basis in September have stood at $10.3 billion, while the monthly tourism revenue with a rise of 13.7% year-over-year topped $5.6 billion, Bolat said.
For tourism, a critical source of revenue for Türkiye and a significant contributor to the current account balance, the government anticipates 56 million foreign arrivals and income rising to $55.6 billion this year.
According to the temporary stats on the export-import data, the country's foreign trade gap shrank by 14.9% to $6.7 billion in October, the minister further recalled, noting this "may reflect positively on the current account data for October."
"As the Trade Ministry, our efforts to strengthen the growth environment in the Turkish economy with our priorities of 'value-added and innovation-focused production and investment, employment, export, current surplus and fair distribution' will continue uninterrupted to achieve the structural transformation that reinforces macroeconomic stability," he vowed.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek also evaluated the latest data noting on his official social media account they "expect this improvement to continue in line with (our) program predictions.”
