Production and Exports Must Not Be Neglected
October holds a special significance for us. Each year, on October 29, we celebrate with great enthusiasm and pride the anniversary of the Republic entrusted to us by Veteran Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. As we mark the 101st anniversary of our Republic, we once again feel this pride and enthusiasm deeply within our hearts and souls.
As the export community, we achieved three significant milestones in this meaningful month. We reached the highest-ever October export figure of $23.6 billion. We also set records with $216.4 billion in exports over the first 10 months and $262.3 billion over the past 12 months. I extend my congratulations and gratitude to all our exporters whose efforts contributed to this achievement during a period when our competitiveness has been challenged.
Despite the weakening global demand and the widening gap between input costs and exchange rates, it is indeed vital that our exports remain in positive territory. But this is not enough. As we begin the second century of our Republic, we aim to elevate Türkiye to the ranks of the top 10 exporting countries. To realize this vision, we must accelerate, creating conditions that will drive double-digit growth in exports.
As I reiterated at the opening of our TİM Delegates Workshop, our export community faces two pressing issues in the short term: the decline in our competitiveness and the high cost of financing.
Today, Türkiye has become more expensive even than European countries, leading us to lose competitiveness across numerous sectors. We understand that the priority is to fight inflation, but unfortunately, there is some confusion on this matter. The cause of inflation in our country is not production; it is consumption inflation. This has become our most pressing issue. The data speaks for itself. In the first 10 months, CPI rose by approximately 40%, while the dollar exchange rate increased by only around 15%. This indicates that exchange rates alone are not to blame for inflation. As the focus remains on combating inflation, production and exports have been somewhat neglected.
Access to financing has largely been resolved, and we will soon bring the Trade Bank into play. However, credit costs remain prohibitively high. The compound interest rate on rediscount loans is around 37-38%, while for other loans, it exceeds 50%. In a period of drastically reduced or non-existent profitability, it is, of course, impossible to bear financing costs of 50%. We thus believe it is time to address the interest rate issue with a fresh perspective.
We discussed these two issues, along with all other export-related concerns, in depth during our delegates workshop, attended by Minister of Trade Prof. Dr. Ömer Bolat and his senior team. We had the opportunity to directly convey our sector-specific problems and expectations to them.
While voicing our issues, demands, and solutions at every level, we also continue to work tirelessly to diversify our markets. Between January and October, we organized 15 procurement delegations, 114 trade delegations, and participated in 339 fairs. By year-end, we plan to add another procurement delegation, 18 trade delegations, and 49 fair participations. Through all these efforts, we aim to achieve our 2024 export target of $264 billion and start 2025 with renewed confidence.
In this spirit, we will continue to produce with all our strength to reach our export targets.