Invest News DetailThe 2019 Review Meeting was held at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on January 16, 2020. In his speech, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made remarks on the economy, trade, defense industry, education, judiciary, energy, agriculture, environment, security, social policies, and tourism. Below is the spotlight on some of the economic and related issues from 2019.Türkiye’s exports rose by 2 percent and reached USD 180.5 billion in 2019. While the EU countries still topped the list with a 49.5 percent share in Türkiye’s total exports, the Middle Eastern and African countries and the Commonwealth of Independent States recorded increases in value terms in 2019. In fact, the Middle Eastern countries posted the highest increase in exports in value basis in 2019.Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit decreased by 44.9 percent in 2019 and lowered to USD 29.9 billion in 2019, compared to USD 54.3 billion in 2018. In the 2019 top 50 exporting countries list of the World Trade Organization, Türkiye ranked 7th regarding export increase ratio and 5th regarding increase in export amount.The Turkish defense industry’s exports in the 2002-2018 period reached USD 18.3 billion, generating a turnover of USD 64.9 billion. In the same period, Türkiye decreased foreign dependency on defense products by increasing domestic production to 65 percent in 2018, up from 20 percent in 2002.Türkiye posted a CPI of 11.84 percent in 2019 – a significant drop from the 20.30 percent in December 2018 and below the NEP target of 12 percent – indicating that it is on course to achieve its single-digit inflation target in 2020. The average annual inflation rate in the 16 years prior to 2003 was 68.7 percent, while this ratio receded to 10.3 percent since then. Türkiye recorded a positive growth rate again in Q3 of 2019 with 0.9 percent. Even though 2019 year-end economic growth is only expected to be 0.5 percent, Türkiye is targeting a 5 percent annual growth rate for the next three years. As a result of the developments in 2019, most of the international organizations and rating agencies revised upwards their growth targets for Türkiye, as many of them had been expecting the Turkish economy to contract.The total amount of FDI inflows to Türkiye between 2003-2019 has exceeded USD 217 billion.Türkiye has jumped up 10 places to 33rd in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 Report.