Minister Bolat announces six basic goals: We overtook G-20 & OECD countries in growth rate

Emphasizing that Turkiye is the fastest growing economy among the G-20 and OECD countries, whose data were announced in the 3rd quarter, Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said: "Innovation-investment-production-export-employment-fair distribution' will be our main priorities in the coming period."

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat evaluated the growth figures for the 3rd quarter of this year on his X social media account.

Bolat said that Turkiye has become the fastest-growing economy among the G-20 and OECD countries, whose data were announced in the third quarter.

Minister Bolat's statement on his social media account is as follows:

With a 5.9 percent increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2023, the Turkish economy has maintained its high-rate growth performance for 13 uninterrupted quarters. In the first nine months of 2023, the economic growth of Turkiye was 4.7 percent.

Despite the earthquake and weak foreign demand, Turkish exports of goods and services increased by 1.1 percent (Contribution: 0.3 points).

In investments, the strongest increase of the last two years was experienced with 14.7 percent due to the impact of machinery and equipment investments, while the contribution of investment expenditures was 3.4 points. This positive trend in exports and investments is very important for a sustainable growth structure.

With the effect of the increase in exports and the slowdown in imports since August, the foreign trade deficit is decreasing and the ratio of exports to imports is higher than the first half of the year. Service and travel revenues also broke their annual records, reaching $98.3 billion and $46.9 billion, respectively, in September. With the positive course observed in trade in goods and services, the current account deficit has decreased by 7.3 billion dollars in the last 2 months. We expect this downward trend to continue on an annualized basis in October, November and December.

As the Ministry of Trade in the Turkish Century, we will continue our efforts to increase exports, reduce the current account deficit, and contribute to economic growth. The efforts to strengthen our trade diplomacy, expand the range and volume of our exports, and make our country a center of attraction for investments will increasingly continue.

With policies aimed at increasing investment, production and exports, we aim to strengthen macro-financial stability by ensuring a permanent improvement in the current account and to continue sustainable high growth, on the other hand, in the coming period.

Directing our resources to effective, efficient, and high-value-added areas is important in increasing our growth capacity.

Therefore, "innovation-investment-production-export-employment-fair distribution" will be our main priority in the coming period.