“Türkiye is rising to the next league in economy”

Delivering remarks at a meeting on foreign trade data of 2021, President Erdoğan said: "As we near 2023, the 100th anniversary of our Republic, Türkiye is going through a transformation in economy, and rising to the next league."

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered remarks at a meeting in Istanbul on Türkiye's foreign trade data of 2021.

"We are reaping the fruits, especially in exports, of our country's efforts and hard work in the past 20 years to bolster our foreign trade," President Erdoğan said.

"The Turkish economy continues to develop in line with principles of investment, employment, production, exportation and growth through current account surplus. The export data, we will announce in a short while, are the epitome of our commitment to our goals and of our sure progress on the right path. As we near 2023, the 100^th anniversary of our Republic, Türkiye is going through a transformation in economy, and rising to the next league," President Erdoğan noted.

Noting that humanity had been fighting against the coronavirus pandemic for the past 2 years, which started as a health crisis at first, but then negatively affected every aspect of life from economy to tourism, from education to social relations, President Erdoğan said: "We as Türkiye utilized in the most effective and productive way possible the advantages of our robust healthcare infrastructure, and duly managed the pandemic period. Despite the global-scale turbulences, we have taken measures to ensure that the Turkish economy survives, production continues non-stop, and jobs are protected."

"TÜRKİYE IS EXPECTED TO BE THE FASTEST-RECOVERING G20 COUNTRY IN TERMS OF ECONOMY DURING THE PANDEMIC"

Announcing that Türkiye grew by 1.8 percent as the global economy shrank by 3.4 percent, President Erdoğan said: "We consolidated our success by growing 7.4 percent in the Q1 of 2021, 22 percent in Q2, 7.4 in Q3. Given this performance, Türkiye is expected to be the fastest-recovering G20 country in terms of economy during the pandemic. In our Q3 growth, we see that the driving force was our commodity and service exports. In this period, the net contribution of commodity and service exports to growth was recorded to be 6.8 points. Therefore, 92 percent of our realized high growth was caused by our net commodity and service exports."

Noting that the effects of the rise in the export volume on growth could be more clearly seen in such indicators as industrial production, capacity utilization rate, and employment, President Erdoğan said: "The Industrial Production Index reached a record level in October by rising to 143.6 with an 8.5 percent increase on an annual basis. The manufacturing industry's capacity utilization rate even exceeded its pre-pandemic level, and reached 78.7 percent in December. This momentum had a positive effect on employment. The Turkish economy generated 2 million additional jobs as of October 2021 in comparison to the pre-pandemic period. While the OECD member countries are expected to recover in terms of employment in the Q3 of 2023, the Turkish economy, with its dynamic structure, rapidly reclaimed the pre-pandemic levels."

"HAVING RISEN 32.9% YEAR-ON-YEAR, TÜRKİYE'S EXPORTS REACHED $225.4 BILLION IN 2021"

"Through an understanding of free market economy, and transparent and predictable policies based on competition, we have developed and strengthened Türkiye," President Erdoğan underlined.

Declaring that Türkiye's export volume surpassed $200 billion for the first time, President Erdoğan said: "Let me announce with great pride and satisfaction that our export volume in 2021 has risen by 32.9% year-on-year, and reached $225 billion 368 million, which is, praise be to Allah, a record."

"EXPORTS TO THE EU ROSE BY 33% TO $93.1 BILLION"

Underscoring that Türkiye's exports to its biggest trade partner, the European Union, rose by 33% to $93.1 billion, President Erdoğan said: "We are pleased to see that the rise in our exports is equally spread across the world instead of focusing on certain areas. We achieved this together with you. For example, our exports to South America have risen by 86.6 percent, to non E.U. European countries by 29 percent, to Near and Middle Eastern countries by 22.6 percent, to North Africa by 44.8 percent."

Pointing to Türkiye's previously-set export goal of $231 billion for 2022, President Erdoğan said: "I believe we will exceed this number next year. Therefore, we are revising our 2022 goal to $250 billion."