Not only does the coronavirus affect human health, it also impedes world trade. Turkey's exports, however, rose by 2.3% in February, breaking its monthly record for any month. Turkey is one of only six countries in the world that had an increase in exports.

The virus has already caused a deterioration in the global economy. Turkey is working on proactive solutions with its ministries in order to circumvent this process with as little damage as possible and to ensure that its export products are not disrupted to the markets.

Despite the coronavirus outbreak and its resulting global conditions, the export record series continues. The January and February periods also finished with a record. In February, exports increased by 2.3% compared with 2019 and reached the highest February figure in the history of the Turkish Republic with $14.6 billion, according to the data announced by Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan. Imports rose 9.9% to $17.6 billion.

Incentive effect

Pekcan congratulated exporters on their success despite the difficult conditions in the global economy. "We broke the republic's historical record for support payments and reached the state's highest amount for exports to date with a total of $3.2 billion, including $2.4 billion for goods. 2019 has literally been a 'golden year' for state support for exports," she said. "We have a total support budget of $3.8 billion for our exports of goods and services in 2020. Of this, $3.1 billion was earmarked for export of goods. Our goal is to support our exporters by using this entire budget."

She added: "In 2019, a total of TL 685 million ($97.9 million) in support payments were made in the goods and services sectors through the Turquality and Brand Support Program, which help 188 companies' 199 labels, with the latter assisting 126 brands from 124 businesses."

Turkish exports, which completed 2019 with a second historical record of $180.9 billion, also made a rapid entry into 2020. February's leader was the automotive sector, with exports of $2.5 billion.

Turkey's top five exporting cities are: Istanbul with $5.8 billion, Bursa with $1.3 billion, Kocaeli with $1.1 billion, İzmir with $750 million and Gaziantep with $633 million.

The countries to which Turkey exports the most are Germany, Iraq and England, while it imports the most from Russia, China and Germany.

Some 1,555 companies, from a total of 39,248, started exporting for the first time in February, carrying out $127 million in trade. According to a statement by Turkish Exporters Assembly (TiM), the annual dues fee has been removed.

Exports made with TL

In February, Turkish lira was used by 172 countries during those countries’ export exchanges, totaling TL 4.2 billion. TİM Chairman İsmail Gülle stated that 6,251 companies preferred to transfer lira for 12.1 million tons of exports in February, an increase of 8.1%, he said.

Despite the negative events seen in the global and regional economy last year, net exports played an important role in Turkey's economic growth due to its strong performance in foreign trade. Commenting on this, Pekcan said that "the 0.9% growth in 2019 resulted from 2.3 points of net exports. When we examine the contribution of investment to growth in the 2019 figures, together with the downward movement in interest rates, we see that the negative trend continued in the last quarter, but it gradually slowed down after the second quarter of 2019 and the recovery process began. We expect the downward trend in interest rates and other indicators in the economy to continue with an increase in investments and economic recovery in 2020."

When considering the increase in Turkey's export target is $190 billion for 2020, the January and February data foretells promise of reaching the goal.

* Founder of Incentive Turkey