Chemicals Emerge as Second-Largest Contributor to Growth

Chemistry Sector Second-Largest Contributor to Growth Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) Board Chairman Adil Pelister issued a written assessment today regarding Turkey's second-quarter 2021 growth data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT). In his assessment, Pelister noted the following: "Turkey's economy, which grew 7 percent in the first quarter of this year, was expected to show strong performance in the second quarter. Last year, lockdowns during this period due to the pandemic had caused a serious decline in economic activities. However, despite this, our country recovered faster than other countries. Therefore, with the support of base effects as well, we expected to see double-digit growth figures. Nevertheless, the manufacturing industry capacity utilization rates we monitored throughout this year, Turkey's Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index) and record-breaking export figures gave us signals that growth would be strong.

We welcome our country's 21.7 percent growth in the second quarter with great satisfaction from this perspective.

Beyond net exports, which contributed 6.9 points to growth after private consumption, the 40.5 percent growth in industry and 20.3 percent growth in investments are quite remarkable. Exports grew 60 percent in the second quarter of 2021 compared to the same quarter of the previous year, while imports grew 19.2 percent. Our chemistry sector, the second-largest sector contributing to our country's growth in this major performance, grew 71.59 percent with USD 6.67 billion in exports achieved in the second quarter. Compared to the first quarter, it increased exports by 25.60 percent. During this period, our chemistry sector led exports in May and June. In June, with USD 2.3 billion in chemical substances and products exports, we broke our monthly sectoral record. Looking at leading indicators, we expect this positive picture to continue at a slightly slower pace. As the chemistry sector, we expect to reach USD 22 billion in exports this year," he said.