October exports hit milestone

Turkey's exports rose 8.84 percent last month, nearing a milestone high of $10.8 billion, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) announced yesterday. According to the TIM data, exports from January to October rose 11.4 percent year-on-year to reach $92.7 billion, while exports from October 2009 to this month rose 9.1 percent to reach $111.6 billion. TIM head Mehmet Buyukeksi said this is the first time that Turkey has passed the $10 billion mark since the world economic crisis began, and proposed that Turkish exporters should receive incentives to alleviate the currency risk they are facing. "A mechanism should be set up to protect exporters from the currency risk by hedging these risks," he said. "We should also look at Eximbank, which needs to be restructured, and more loans should be made to exporters."