Turkey's exports 'hopefully to exceed $170B' in 2018

By Deniz Cicek Palabiyik and Sevgi Ceren Gokkoyun

ANKARA

Turkey's exports will "hopefully" exceed $170 billion by the end of 2018, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Monday.

Speaking at an international fair workshop in capital Ankara, Zeybekci said: "We reached the highest monthly exports of our history in March...We will hopefully exceed $170 billion [of exports] by the end of the year."

According to provisional data of the Ministry of Customs and Trade on Monday, Turkey's exports in March totaled $15.5 billion, which was an 8.01 percent rise compared with the same month in 2017.

Zeybekci said the Economy Ministry provided 450 million Turkish liras ($123.2 million based on last year's exchange rate) to fairs in 2017 and supported over 2,000 fairs abroad.

"We realized that there are strong international fairs in Turkey. Currently, we support 25 fairs in the country," he added.