Turkish bank backs exporters with $34bn in funding

Unsplash/Ian Taylor

The state-owned Türk Eximbank, Turkey’s largest export credit and credit insurance institution, has provided financing worth $33.6 billion to exporters in the first 10 months of 2023, as the country’s trade with Gulf countries continues to grow.

Turkey’s trade minister, Ömer Bolat said in a post on the social messaging platform X (formerly Twitter) that the $33.6 billion in support as of the end of October 2023 was made up of $15.1 billion in loans and $18.5 billion in insurance and guarantees.

The country’s exports rose 7.4 percent year-on-year to $22.9 billion, an all-time high for October, according to trade ministry data.  

• Turkey’s trade with GCC soars 11-fold in two decades
• UAE-Turkey trade set for 50% rise to $15bn in 2023
• Stronger GCC relations a boon to Turkey’s Islamic banks

Earlier this month, Bolat said he expected Turkey’s service exports to pass $100 billion this year. 

“Our goal in the 12th Development Plan is set at $200 billion by 2028. We aim to capture two percent of global service exports,” he said.

Eximbank, founded in 1987, provides credit, guarantee and credit insurance programmes to exporters to build economic relations between Turkey and other countries.

Over two decades, Turkey’s bilateral trade with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries rose more than tenfold to $22.7 billion in 2022, from $2.1 billion in 2002.

Turkey’s exports to GCC countries climbed from $1.2 billion to $9.5 billion, with imports of $13.3 billion, up from below $1 billion two decades ago, Bolat said in a speech at the GCC-Turkey Economic Forum in Istanbul earlier this month.