A note released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) reveals, Turkey has emerged the sixth largest textile and confection exporter of the world. It accounted for around 4 per cent of global exports last year. China topped the list with 41 per cent, India followed with 5.4 per cent, Italy 5.3 per cent, and Germany accounted for 5 per cent. As per the note, Turkey’s share of the sector in total exports was 18.7 per cent last year, in value with around $29.5 billion. This rate was around 40 per cent in 1995, but dipped to 26 per cent in 2005 and 19.3 per cent in 2010. Today, the leading exporting sector of Turkey is the automotive sector.

The figures released by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM), last year, Turkey’s exports rose by about four per cent to reach $157.6 billion—a record in the history of the modern republic. Along with textiles and chemicals, car sales have been a major driving force, netting $22.3 billion.

There has also been a dip in the share of textiles trade in the world. In 1995, the share of the sector in world trade was seven per cent, this rate dipped to 4.6 per cent last year. Turkey was one of the three countries, which gave a trade surplus in the sector, according to the report.