Friday, 26 December 2008
Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen has said that Turkey surpassed its year-end target of 125 billion USD in exports as of December 22, 2008.
Speaking at a meeting of the Turkish Economic Journalists' Association, Tuzmen said, "the global crisis caused an inestimable shrinkage in world markets. Accordingly, exports have dropped in the recent months. But we have succeeded in surpassing our targets in exports in 2008. Our target was 125 billion USD. As of December 22, our exports reached 125.7 billion USD."
"Exports by automotive sector reached 24.5 billion USD, exports by iron-steel sector reached 19.1 billion USD and exports by textiles sector reached 15.4 billion USD. From January 1 to December 22, exports by Turkey increased by 21.4 percent," he said.
"This shrinkage in markets is not a problem of only Turkey, but of all countries. Exports by the People's Republic of China, Germany, India and Japan fell considerably. If the global crisis continue, we will have a tough year in 2009. Analysts expect a 2.1 percent narrowing in world markets in 2009. We are taking some measures to lessen impacts of the crisis. We rely on our commercial relations with African, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Asian countries since those countries were less affected by the crisis," Tuzmen added.
