Kocaeli Chamber of Industry (KSO) President Ayhan Zeytinoğlu made evaluations regarding the temporary foreign trade data announced by the Ministry of Commerce of the Republic of Turkey. Zeytinoğlu said, “Our exports in February amounted to 21 billion 86 million dollars. We see that this figure is the highest value in February. Our exports increased by 13.6 percent compared to the same month last year. In February last year, there was a contraction in exports due to the earthquake. "However, when we compare it with the previous year, we see that it is still above 6 percent and we hope that our export performance will continue to increase," he said. Zeytinoğlu said that among the top five export countries, there was an increase of 1.6 percent with Germany, 22.4 percent with the USA, 3.8 percent with Italy, 47.6 percent with Iraq and 25.4 percent with the United Kingdom.
Making an evaluation about February imports, Zeytinoğlu said, “Imports in February amounted to 28 billion 87 million dollars. We see that there is an 8.5 percent decrease in imports compared to the same month last year. When we look at the sub-items; There is a 24.1 percent increase in investment (capital) goods, an 18.2 percent decrease in raw material (intermediate goods) imports, and a 26.1 percent increase in consumer goods imports. "While we find the increases in production and investment positive, we think that we should be more careful in importing consumer goods, and that the competitive level of exchange rates will also slow down the demand for imports of consumer goods," he said.
INFLATION RATES
Zeytinoğlu, in his statement regarding the February inflation rates announced by TUIK, said, “In February, CPI increased by 4.53 percent monthly, reaching 67.07 percent annually, and PPI increased by 3.74 percent monthly, reaching 47.29 percent annually. We see that monthly increases in inflation have slowed down, but annual inflation has increased since it was above the same month last year. "We can say that the upward trend in inflation will continue until the first half of the year due to the movement in exchange rates and the base effect."
