Türkiye’s exports reached a new all-time high in 2024, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Friday, stressing the achievement despite what he said was a “painful” year filled with regional uncertainties and protectionist measures that continued to negatively impact global trade.
“Our goods exports for 2024 increased by 2.5% compared to 2023, reaching $262 billion,” Erdoğan told an event in Istanbul to announce the preliminary trade figures. “We achieved a record in export figures throughout the year.”
That marks a fourth straight annual peak that was up from $255.8 billion in 2023. Imports dropped by 4.9% year-over-year to $344.1 billion last year, said Erdoğan.
The achievement came despite challenges such as uncertain global outlook and slowing demand in some of Türkiye’s key export markets like the European Union.
“We have endured a painful and turbulent year filled with regional uncertainties. Protectionist measures continued to adversely affect global trade last year. The fight against inflation, which has not yet reached the desired levels, marked the past year worldwide,” Erdoğan said.
Still, he expressed optimism, saying: “We expect a relatively better year in 2025.”
Despite some positive signals regarding the new year, Erdoğan emphasized the need for cautious action.
He described the negative outlook in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, as a “significant risk factor” for the eurozone.
“We will work to minimize this risk. Although global trade in goods and services is showing positive signals for 2025, unresolved geopolitical tensions necessitate more cautious actions. We will strive to minimize risks by finding new markets and trade partners,” he noted.
Türkiye’s trade deficit narrowed to $82.2 billion from $106.3 billion in 2023. “In 2024, we reduced the trade deficit by a full $24 billion,” the president noted.
He also highlighted the export-to-import coverage ratio, which rose by 5.5 points to 76.1% last year. “This ratio was only around 50% when we took office in 2002.”
Exports also reached a new all-time December high, said Erdoğan, growing by 2.2% year-over-year to $23.5 billion. Imports rose by 11.1% from a year ago to $33.1 billion.
Growth, inflation, employment
Erdoğan went on to hail the government’s medium-term economic program and the fact that Turkish economy has managed to maintain its growth for 17 consecutive quarters.
“Our economy grew by 2.1% in the third quarter. This brought our growth to 3.2% for the first nine months,” said the president.
He added that the government estimates a 4% expansion in 2025 on back of exports and fixed capital investments.
The economy has reached $1.26 trillion in national income as of the third quarter, he added. “We expect our per capita income that stood at $13,243 in 2023 to exceed $15,000 in 2024, and to surpass $17,000 in 2025.”
Erdoğan also noted a significant increase in employment, with more than a million new jobs created in the past year, reaching a historic high of 32.97 million employed individuals as of October.
The unemployment rate fell to 8.8% from January to October, the lowest in 23 years.
Erdoğan also referred to the ground the government has covered in the battle against inflation after official data on Friday showed consumer prices eased more than expected in December to end 2024 at nearly 44.4% on an annual basis.
The December figure marks the weakest inflation since June 2023 and hit the central bank’s midpoint target of 44% for year-end.
The bank, having kept its main interest rate steady at 50% since March, launched an easing cycle last week, cutting the policy rate by 250 basis points to 47.5%.
It began tightening policy in mid-2023. The last cut was in February 2023.
Erdoğan said Friday’s data “confirms the correctness of our actions,” and expects inflation to cool further in 2025 in line with official estimates. The central bank sees inflation falling to 21% at the end of this year.
“The markets trust our government and our program,” Erdoğan said.
