ERZURUM
Turkey’s exports decreased by 13 percent in February compared with figures for the same month in 2014 as the high U.S. dollar rate and winter made an impact, the Turkish Exporters' Assembly said Sunday.
According to the assembly, the exports totaled $10.5 billion in Feb. 2015. In the first two months of 2015, exports were at $22.8 billion, which is a decline of 6.7 percent.
"The appreciation of the U.S. dollar in the world has made a significant impact on the export unit price; the price effects due to parity is effective on EU exports as well as outside EU,” the assembly’s President Mehmet Buyukeksi said in the eastern Erzurum province.
In the foreign-exchange market, currencies are said to be at parity when their exchange rate is exactly 1 to 1.
Nearly 45 percent of Turkish exports are paid in euros. Experts warn that the depreciation of the euro against the U.S. dollar would have an impact on Turkish exporters, who pay the cost of intermediary goods mostly in the U.S. dollar.
A strong dollar and the falling value of Turkish lira in the current year have also contributed negatively to Turkish exports since nearly half of the country's exports are paid in dollars. Turkey pays 64 percent of its imported goods in the U.S. dollar and only 31 percent in euro.
Euro, which is the currency of 19 European countries, was also negatively impacted by the continuous appreciation of the U.S. dollar and witnessed its lowest level in almost 12 years Friday as the European Central Bank prepared its inaugural round of quantitative easing, due first week of March.
The common currency was launched at a rate of $1.1789, however, the parity came down to $1.11, the lowest since September 2003; the currency was trading at 1.1202 Friday
Exports have also been impacted by the winter. “We also had a negative impact on our exports in terms of loss of production and logistics due to snowfall,” Buyukeksi said.
He said that Turkish Central Bank’s interest rate cut, which was 0.25 point to 7.50 percent, did not meet the expectation of Turkish exporters. "More concrete and decisive steps will be needed to stimulate the real economy," he added.
-Exports to Iran up by 20 percent
Exports to Germany, the EU’s largest economy, declined by 11.8 percent in February, while the automobile industry registered $1.7 billion in exports for February.
According to the assembly, exports to neighboring Iraq fell by 27 percent in February. However, exports to the world’s largest economy, the U.S., increased by 16.5 percent in February, for the U.K. the increase was 5.1 percent.
Moreover, the largest increase in exports for February was seen in Iran, 20 percent.
Turkey is the 17th-largest economy in the world, according to last year’s Gross Domestic Product figures, and its major markets include Germany, Iraq, the U.K., Russia and Italy.
Iraq has faced violence and political turmoil since Daesh militants seized large areas of the country in June.
An increase in exports is crucial for fixing Turkey's economy long term.
