Minister Muş Announced Foreign Trade Figures for April

Minister Muş announced the foreign trade figures for April at the press conference he held with the President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) İsmail Gülle at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Commerce.

Emphasizing that despite the recent negative developments in the global economy, Turkey continued its strong performance in the first four months of 2022 after its great success in exports in 2021, Muş said:

"In April we left behind, our exports increased by 24.6 percent compared to the same month of the previous year and reached 23.4 billion dollars. This figure is the highest monthly export figure of all time. We announced the highest monthly figures in the first three months of 2022. Thus, our increase series continues. On the other hand, our export of 1 billion 956 million dollars, which we realized on April 29, is very valuable as it is the highest export made in just one day in the history of the Republic."
Muş reported that the foreign trade volume increased by 30.1 percent compared to the previous year and reached 52.8 billion dollars in April.

Noting that imports increased by 35 percent last month compared to the same month of 2021, to $29.5 billion, Muş shared the following information:

"The energy item continues to occupy an important place in our imports with a share of 7.7 billion dollars. As a matter of fact, the ratio of our exports to imports, excluding energy, has exceeded 100 percent. At this point, the increase in imports in the January-April period, especially oil and natural gas, "$ 20.7 billion of the 33.2 billion dollars increase in imports in the January-April 2022 period stemmed from the increase in energy imports, especially the increase in natural gas and crude oil imports."

- "We will increase our economic growth even higher"

Minister Muş pointed out that there has been an increase in energy prices all over the world due to the effect of the Russia-Ukraine War, and said that this situation, which also affected Turkey, created an upward pressure on import prices.

Stating that the aforementioned developments are not unique to Turkey, but have affected European countries much more deeply, Muş made the following assessments:

"According to the World Bank data, natural gas prices in Europe increased by 591.9 percent as of March 2022 compared to the same month of the previous year. The ongoing war, the increasing tension in this context and the efforts of Europe to permanently reduce its energy dependence on Russia have led to an increase of 591.9 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. Russia's response does not reduce the risk of price fluctuations and the persistence of high prices in energy commodities from the agenda. Therefore, I would like to underline once again that the increase in our imports is due to the excessive increase in world energy prices. Despite all these negativities in energy prices, when we evaluate the data, our country is quite different compared to the same period of the previous year. We can say that it has a strong export performance."

Noting that he believes that the strong performance will continue in 2022 and that new records will be reached in exports, Muş used the following statements:

"Especially the pandemic period has shown that Turkey is a reliable supplier. It is an important production base with its strong production infrastructure. With our exports in the last 12 months, reaching $240.1 billion, we are taking firm steps forward with our President's target of $250 billion by the end of 2022. "We will increase our exports, employment and economic growth by betraying them. We will work harder, we will produce more, and by exporting Turkish products, we will increase foreign exchange inflow, investments and employment and strengthen the Turkish economy even more."

Minister of Commerce Mehmet Muş stated that they are working to support exporters in all areas they need, "We are confident that we will exceed the target of 68 billion dollars in our service exports in 2022, with the momentum provided by the new supports that have entered into force." said.

Minister Muş announced the foreign trade figures for April at the press conference he held with the President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) İsmail Gülle at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Commerce.

Pointing out that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is expected to slow down global growth in 2022, Muş said that inflationary pressures intensified due to the sudden increases in energy, metals and agricultural commodity prices.
Noting that there is a period in front of the world economy, which was tested by the Kovid-19 epidemic, this time when regional and global risks increased tremendously due to the Russia-Ukraine War, and uncertainties tended towards negative scenarios, "Russia and Ukraine's food, energy, certain "The fact that they are one of the main suppliers of basic goods such as metals and fertilizers has led to serious increases in commodity prices, which are already on the rise. Commodity prices that have increased with the war continue to fuel inflation all over the world." he said.

In line with these developments, inflation in the USAStating that the global economy has reached its peak in the last 40 years and in the Eurozone in the last 25 years, Muş stated that besides the growth, some negative forecasts regarding world trade draw attention.

Muş said that the World Trade Organization (WTO) revised its commodity trade volume forecast for 2022 downwards by 1.7 points to 3 percent, while the European Union (EU), Turkey's most important trade partner, lowered its import forecast from 6.8 percent. It dropped to 3.7 percent.