At a meeting held in Ankara, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) revealed the export figures for December and the 2016 financial year along with its goals for the New Year. Following TİM chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi's presentation in which he shared export data with participants, economy minister Nihat Zeybekci went on to evaluate Turkey's 2016 export performance in addition to the country's goals for 2017.

According to data announced in the meeting, while the share of exports in world trade stood at 0.87 per cent in 2015, it broke a record by hitting 0.89 per cent in 2016. Indicating that 2017 will be a more balanced year than last year, economy minister Zeybekci said that developments are expected to get better in Turkey's region. He noted that a poor growth performance in the global economy negatively affected global exports, adding that total exports, which declined by 13.5 per cent in value in 2015 decreased by 4 per cent in dollar terms in the first 10 months of 2016, according to data compiled by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Yet, despite the shrinking global trade, Turkey's share in world trade reached 0.89 per cent last year up from 0.87 per cent in 2015.

According to the country-based exports data released by the TİM, Turkey made the largest amount of exports to Germany in December with approximately $1.12 billion, seeing an increase of 3.7 per cent compared to December 2015. While Britain ranked the second with $737 million, exports to Iraq amounted to over $732 million with a 59 per cent increase in December, followed by Italy with 12 per cent and the U.S. with 8.7 percent. Exports to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bulgaria rose by 77 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively, in the same period.