Turkey’s exports rose 8.8% y/y to USD 13.8bn in November, the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TIM) said on Monday.

In Jan-Nov, exports declined slightly by 0.3% y/y to USD 138.3bn while exports in the last twelve months (between November 2012 and November 2013) were down 0.2% y/y to USD 150.9bn. The government recently revised down its estimate on exports for 2013 to USD 153.5bn in its new medium-term programme (MTP), covering 2014-2016, from USD 158bn in the previous MTP.

Merchandise shipments had grown only 1.5% y/y to USD 11.9bn in October following a stronger increase of 11% y/y to USD 12.56bn in September.

Ready-wear & confection shipments (12% share in total exports) were up 15.8% y/y while auto exports (15.1% in total) rose 18.2% y/y in November, but the country’s steel exports (8.4% in total) plunged 2.2% y/y. Chemicals exports (11.4% share in total) also declined by 0.3% y/yin the month.

TIM said that Turkey’s exports to the EU rose 9% y/y in November and merchandise shipments to the Middle East were up 14% y/y and there was a 4% increase in exports to Africa. Germany remained Turkey’s largest export market with USD 1.32bn (9.23% share in total exports), followed by Iraq with USD 1.21bn.

TIM announces its export data one month before the statistics institute (TUIK). Exports were down 8.2% y/y to USD 12.1bn (market estimate: USD 12.38bn) in October but imports rose 3.7% y/y to USD 19.48bn (market estimate: USD 19.52bn), TUIK said last week. Turkey’s foreign trade deficit widened 31.8% y/y to USD 7.38bn in October versus the market consensus forecast of USD 7.35bn.

The seasonally adjusted Turkey Manufacturing PMI registered 55 in November, its 32-month high, Markit said which compiles data also on Monday. Export orders rose for a fourth month in a row, according to Markit’s survey.

The headline real sector confidence index, an indicator of business sentiment, fell from 107.5 in October to 104.5 points, a ten-month low, in November, the Central Bank’s monthly tendency survey showed last week. Export orders index (next three months) also dropped from 120.3 to 112.5 in the month.