Balance of payments

Tourism revenues reached 21.3 billion euros in the nine months of January to September 2024, recording an increase of 4.1% compared to the same period last year.

According to data from the Bank of Greece, non-resident traveler arrivals increased by 9.3%.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek welcomed Standard & Poor's (S&P) decision to raise Türkiye's credit rating, highlighting the country's unique achievement of receiving two-notch upgrades from three major credit rating agencies this year.

European Union institution representatives expressed concerns last week about the deficit of the current account balance, which reflects a deficit in the competitiveness of the economy.

Kathimerini understands the concerns were conveyed by staff-level experts who visited Athens in the context of the regular, post-program supervision.

Türkiye recorded a current account surplus of $4.32 billion in August, according to data from the Central Bank on Oct. 11.

This marked the largest current account surplus since 2019 and was in line with market expectations.

Türkiye's exports hit $22.5 billion in August with an increase of 2.3 percent compared to the same period of last year, while the country's imports were down by 10.7 percent to $27.4 billion, according to provisional data announced on Sept. 27.

Greece's current account surplus decreased in July year-on-year due to a deterioration in the balance of goods, the balance of services and the primary income account, while the secondary income account improved slightly, the Bank of Greece reported on Friday.

In January-July 2024, the current account deficit increased by 1.3 billion euros year-on-year and stood at €8.6 billion.

Tourist traffic in January-July 2024 appears up 11.1% compared to the same seven-month period last year, with tourism receipts recording a 5.6% increase.

Exports of goods have shown a steady upward trend in recent years, but at the same time the percentage of imported goods (mainly primary and secondary materials, equipment etc) that are used to produce the exported products is increasing more and more.

Türkiye's current account balance posts a surplus for the second month in a row in July, data from the Central Bank have shown.

The current account surplus increased from $330 million in June to $566 million in July.

The government is keeping its targets for the number of visitors and tourism revenues unchanged for 2024, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz has said.

"We still expect 60 million tourists to visit Türkiye this year, while aiming for $60 billion in tourism revenues," Yılmaz said in a speech in the province of Bilecik.