“Our export figures for 2024 have set a new record in the history of the Republic”

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at the Announcement of 2024 Export Figures event in Istanbul.

“WE HOPE THAT THE SUN OF FREEDOM AND JUSTICE WILL RISE IN THE SKIES OF GAZA IN 2025”

President Erdoğan said: “We have left behind a tough year marked by wars, massacres, and conflicts in our neighboring region, particularly in Gaza and Lebanon. Atrocities in Gaza, raging on for 15 months before the eyes of the whole world and claiming 50 thousand innocent lives, continued to bleed as a deep wound in our hearts throughout 2024. We hope that the sun of freedom and justice, which rose in Syria in the last weeks of 2024, will also rise in the skies of Gaza in 2025.”

Stressing that Türkiye, as it has done in Syria over the past 13 years, has not abandoned its Palestinian brothers and sisters, either, in the face of the oppression they have been enduring since October 7, 2023, President Erdoğan stated: “With the 100 thousand tons of humanitarian aid we have delivered through various channels, we have endeavored to ease the burden of innocents in Gaza. We have both supported and spearheaded all the diplomatic efforts aimed at the recognition of the State of Palestine by more countries.”

“TÜRKİYE IS THE ONLY COUNTRY TO HAVE COMPLETELY HALTED TRADE WITH ISRAEL”

“Türkiye is the only country to have completely halted trade with Israel,” President Erdoğan underlined. “Additionally, by finalizing the negotiations to expand the Palestine Free Trade Agreement, we ensured that our decision didn’t have any negative implications for the Palestinian people, while also providing them with additional contributions.”

President Erdoğan said: “We cannot bear the loss of even one more innocent life in Gaza, where the harsh winter conditions further exacerbate the humanitarian tragedy. Accordingly, we work intensively to stop the massacres as quickly as possible and pave the way for lasting peace. We hope to see the positive outcomes of our multipronged efforts in the period ahead. On behalf of myself and my nation, I once again would like to thank all members of our business community who support this decision which our government has taken to display solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

President Erdoğan added: “Just as we have been proven right in the case of Syria, history will attest to our righteousness in the Gaza crisis as well, showing the felicity of Türkiye’s position in favor of justice, peace and compassion. We have no doubts whatsoever about this.”

“THE PROTECTIVE MEASURES IMPLEMENTED DURING THE PANDEMIC CONTINUED TO NEGATIVELY AFFECT THE GLOBAL TRADE LAST YEAR”

“I believe that we shouldn’t overlook the following point while making an objective review of foreign trade figures: As Türkiye, we had an extremely turbulent and challenging year full of uncertainties, particularly within the context of regional developments. The war between Russia and Ukraine, our Black Sea neighbors, continued into 2024, escalating to dangerous levels at times,” President Erdoğan stated.

Noting that the protective measures implemented during the coronavirus process with the claim that they were temporary unfortunately continued to negatively affect the global trade last year, as well, President Erdoğan stated: “The deterioration that began with the pandemic in key economic indicators such as consumption, production and inflation couldn’t be overcome yet. Last year, the world was marked by geopolitical tensions, political upheavals, and the fight against inflation that is still not at the desired levels.”

“GLOBAL ECONOMIC ACTIVITY WILL REMAIN BELOW THE PRE-PANDEMIC AVERAGES NOTWITHSTANDING THE EXPECTED RECOVERY IN 2025”

Stressing that a relatively better year awaits the world in 2025, President Erdoğan, however, went onto say: “It seems that the global economic activity will remain below the pre-pandemic averages notwithstanding the expected recovery in 2025. OECD projections forecast that the world economy will close 2024 with a 3.2 percent growth, and will reach a growth rate of 3.3 percent in 2025. For these respective years, the U.S. economy is expected to grow by 2.8 percent and 2.2 percent, and the Eurozone by 0.8 percent and 1.2 percent.”

President Erdoğan further stressed: “The negative outlook in Germany, our largest trade parent, poses a serious risk from our perspective regarding the Eurozone. We, nevertheless, will try to minimize this risk by find new markets and new trade partners for ourselves.”

“OUR ECONOMY HAS BEEN GROWING UNINTERRUPTEDLY FOR 17 QUARTERS”

“Looking at the broader picture,” President Erdoğan said, “it is evident that even though global trade in goods and services give positive signals for 2025, unresolved hot conflicts and geopolitical tensions make it essential for us to adopt a more cautious and meticulous approach.”

President Erdoğan continued his remarks as follows: “Despite all these challenges in global economy and in our region, Türkiye moves forward towards its goals with firm steps. We write new success stories with our strategy of growth based on investment, employment, production, and exports. Our economy, which grew by 2.1 percent in the third quarter of 2024, has been growing uninterruptedly for 17 quarters.”

President Erdoğan went onto say: “Our economy, which stood at 1.13 trillion dollars in 2023, reached 1.26 trillion dollars in annualized figures by the end of the third quarter of 2024. We expect our per capita income, recorded at 13,243 dollars in 2023, to surpass 15,000 dollars in 2024 and exceed 17,000 dollars in 2025. We aim to reach a 4 percent growth rate for 2025 with the support of net exports and fixed capital investments.”

“WE REACHED AN ALL-TIME HIGH IN MONTHLY EXPORT FIGURES IN 12 OUT OF THE LAST 19 MONTHS”

Underscoring that in December 2024, Türkiye’s exports increased by 2.2 percent to 23.5 billion dollars, setting a new record in monthly exports, President Erdoğan stated: “Our imports, on the other hand, increased by 11.1 percent to 32.3 billion dollars. Our export figures for the entire year have set a new record in the history of the Republic. Despite the setbacks I have just mentioned, our goods exports in 2024 increased by 2.5 percent compared to 2023, reaching 262 billion dollars.”

President Erdoğan said: “What is more, we reached an all-time high in monthly export figures in 12 out of the last 19 months. Within the period of January-December 2024, our 31 provinces each carried out exports exceeding one billion dollars, while our 54 provinces further increased their export volumes. Throughout 2024, our imports dropped by 4.9 percent to 344.1 billion dollars. We had positive gains in our foreign trade balances in 2024.”

“OUR EXPORT-IMPORT RATIO INCREASED TO 76.1 PERCENT IN 2024”

Drawing attention to Türkiye’s shrinking foreign trade deficit, President Erdoğan said: “We reduced the foreign trade deficit from 106.3 billion dollars in 2023 all the way down to 82.2 billion dollars in 2024, which is to say that we decreased the foreign trade deficit by exactly 24 billion dollars in 2024. The export-import ratio increased by 5.5 percentage points to 76.1 percent in 2024. This ratio was just around 50 percent when we came to office in 2002.”

Stressing that Türkiye will always continue to support Turkish exporters as it has done so far, President Erdoğan added: “We extended a total of 24.7 billion Turkish liras in supports to our exporters of goods and services in 2024. We will increase our budget for exports incentives to 33 billion Turkish liras in 2025. All the relevant institutions of our state are exerting joint efforts to facilitate our exporters’ access to financing.”