İKMİB Chairman Adil Pelister’s Written Statement

İKMİB Chairman Adil Pelister Issues Statement Adil Pelister, Chairman of the Board of the Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB), has issued a written assessment in response to Turkey's first-quarter 2022 economic growth data released today by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Pelister's statement included the following:

"The Turkish economy, which grew 11% in 2021, achieved 7.3% growth in the first quarter of 2022. Leading indicators for the first quarter supported this figure. Industrial production grew 7.4% in the first quarter, while merchandise and services exports increased 16.8%. While this first-quarter growth is significant and satisfactory, we believe that in order for it to be sustainable, incentives supporting exports and investment must necessarily be increased. Net exports contributed 3.5 percentage points to growth in the first quarter. Our chemical sector grew 41.71% in first-quarter exports compared to the same period in the previous year, achieving USD 7.52 billion in exports. We are working to maintain this strong performance consistently in the second quarter as well. Indeed, with March and April, our sector became the export leader for the first four months. On the other hand, rapid increases in commodity, energy and food prices—particularly due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis—and the resulting inflation increases continue. Raw material prices used in production by our chemical sector continue to remain elevated. To be affected as little as possible by these adverse developments, we are prioritizing high-value-added domestic production. As İKMİB, we are continuing our work in this direction. We published our report on Priority Investment Products in the Turkish Chemical Sector last year. Additionally, with our Chemical Technology Centre (KTM), which we are preparing to bring into operation by year-end, we will achieve significant gains. As the chemical sector, we are assuming a strategic role in our country's sustainable development. We will continue producing and working with this responsibility."