In the crisis period, Turkey's ranking decreased from the 8th place to 18th in terms of competitiveness whereas the adaptation to the emerging markets increased from 14^th place to 4^th.

ANKARA- TEPAV analyzed Turkey's competitiveness and adaptation to emerging markets as two key factors necessitated for a sustainable and strong export performance. Findings about Turkey and other countries in the same income group maintained that although Turkey lost pace in competitiveness in the last five years, it made a great breakthrough with respect to the adaptation to new and emerging markets.

Policy note titled "Turkey's Export Performance 1: Weaker Competitiveness, Faster Adaptation" by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ümit Özlale, Director of TEPAV Training and Research Institute for Public Policy, and H. Ekrem Cunedioğlu, TEPAV Research Associate was published.

The study is the first policy note of the series on Turkey's export performance.

The note said: "Domestic demand driven growth in Turkey in the aftermaths of the global crisis, though perceptible in the context of the developments in the world, brings risks about the sustainability of economic growth. Therefore, the acceleration of the exports on a stable path gains importance. In this context, competitiveness and adaptation to emerging markets comes to the fore as two key concepts."

Competitiveness and Adaptation of Exports

TEPAV's study assessed the competitiveness and adaptation performance of Turkey's exports on the basis of the sub-items of The Trade Performance Index issued by the International Trade Center (ITC).

As the note suggested, between the 2000-2005 period and the 2005-2009 period, Turkey's ranking decreased from the 8^th place to 18^th in terms of competitiveness whereas the adaptation to the emerging markets increased from 14^th place to 4^th.

The note emphasized that particularly in the 2007-2009 period, that is, the crisis period, a substantial drop in competitiveness and a remarkable improvement in adaptation was observed. The note stated in this context that in the last decade Turkey's export performance was characterized by weaker competitiveness and faster adaptation.

Competitiveness and Adaptation Performance of Turkey's Export

Source: UN Comtrade Database, ITC The Trade Performance Index, TEPAV Calculations

How did Turkey Ensure Fast Adaptation?

The study said: "The analysis of the recent improvement in adaptation indicates that, though Turkey's exports in medium-technology goods to the Middle East, North Africa and Asia increased, the driving factor was low-technology exports. Therefore, the technology content of Turkey's exports to the mentioned regions evolved in favor of low-technology goods."

Turkey Earned the Leader Position with Respect to the Adaptation to New Markets

The study maintained that the findings imply that Turkey had offset the loss in competitiveness via the improvements in the adaptation to new and emerging markets and compared the competitiveness and adaptation index values for Turkey and for other countries in the upper-middle income group.

Arguing that the results of the comparison among upper-middle income group were in parallel with the previous findings, the study concluded:

"Even through Turkey's competitiveness ranking among the group decreased from the 2nd place to the 5th; this is mitigated by an impressive ability of adaptation. Also, it is seen that countries in the top steps of the ladder with respect to competitiveness for the 2005-2009 period mainly export resource-oriented goods.

It is revealed that in the period of the global crisis between 2007 and 2009, Turkey's competitiveness deteriorated slightly further whereas the country earned the leader position with respect to the adaptation to new markets. It is striking that in this crisis period, Mexico, Romania, Malaysia and Colombia performed better than Turkey in regards to competitiveness."