Türkiye's exporters have achieved their best May sales ever despite a fallout after devastating earthquakes in early February and challenges plaguing the global economy.
Outbound shipments rose 14.4% year-over-year to nearly $21.7 billion (TL 453.12 billion), Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said Friday. "This is the highest May export value of all time. Our exports will continue to be the driving force of growth," Muş wrote on Twitter.
Imports rose 16% year-over-year to $34.3 billion in May, the official data showed, driving a 19% increase in the foreign trade deficit to nearly $12.7 billion.
Low growth in the global economy and persistent inflation have made the recovery fragile, the ministry said in a separate statement. It also stressed the recent turmoil in the financial sector, which it says has worsened expectations.
However, it expressed optimism given the fall in energy prices from 2022 peaks and China's reopening.
Türkiye is trying to emerge from catastrophic twin quakes on Feb. 6 that killed more than 50,000 people and flattened hundreds of thousands of buildings besides inflicting severe infrastructural damage.
The disaster had disrupted production and supply chains across 11 affected provinces, but the Trade Ministry said data showed economic activity had recovered faster than expected.
The region accounts for more than 20% of the country's food production, nearly 15% of agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and almost 20% of the country's agrifood exports.
Meanwhile, the data showed Türkiye's energy imports dropped 23.6% year-over-year to $5.3 billion in the same period. Gold imports surged 114.1% year-over-year to $3 billion in May.
Gold imports, which contributed to the trade deficit last year, have been on the decline since January due to restrictions on such imports. While gold imports in May were double those in April, the number remains below $5.1 billion in January.
Among others, the data also showed imports of motor vehicles rose 113.6% year-over-year to $2.9 billion. Purchases of machinery jumped 51.1% annually to $6.4 billion.
In January-May, outbound shipments rose 0.2% versus the same period a year ago to $102.5 billion.
Imports increased 8.9% to $158.6 billion, the data showed, taking the five-month foreign trade gap to $56.1 billion, an increase of nearly 30% from a year ago.
"The export family showed a very strong performance after negative repercussions of global and national developments were felt in April," said Mustafa Gültepe, the head of the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM).
Gültepe said the 12-month rolling exports had jumped 4.9% to $254.4 billion.
Exports have been one of the main drivers of Türkiye's economic growth and hit record-high volumes throughout 2022, ending the year at an all-time high of $254.2 billion. Yet, a global slowdown has affected foreign demand, notably among Türkiye's largest trade partners, spearheaded by Europe.
The automotive industry spearheaded the exports in May with around $3 billion worth of sales, Gültepe said. It was followed by the chemicals sector with $2.5 billion, read-to-wear with some $1.7 billion, electric and electronics with $1.4 billion and steel with $1.3 billion.
Gültepe said Germany ($1.8 billion), the United States ($1.3 billion) and the United Kingdom ($1 billion) were the top export markets in May, followed by Iraq and Spain.
He also stressed what he said were notable increases in shipments to Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"We increased our exports to Saudi Arabia by nine times compared to the same month last year," he noted.
Gültepe said the foreign exchange parity positively affected exports in May after April. Exporters suffered about $14 billion in losses in 2022 due to the euro-dollar parity.
"In May, the parity effect provided a surplus value of $327 million," said Gültepe. "However, since the beginning of the year, we have lost $645 million due to the parity effect."
