The security crisis in Iraq has triggered an extensive drop in Turkey's exports to Iraq, chairman of Turkey Exporters Assembly said on Tuesday.
Mehmet Büyükeksi told a conference in Istanbul that the decrease in exports to Iraq had reached 30 percent since the start of the crisis.
Turkey's exports to Iraq stand at $12 billion annually, which makes it Turkey’s second-biggest export market.
Stressing that exports to Iraq had increased to $5 billion with an 11 percent increase during the first five months of the year, Buyukeksi said this performance was reversed in June due to an armed insurgency led by the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.
“Exports to Iraq fell by 21 percent in June, which would cause a minus 2.5 points effect on Turkey’s overall export growth," he said.
Iraq has seen a significant increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims since June, when a coalition of armed opposition groups led by ISIL took control of large swathes of the country's predominantly Sunni provinces.
The latest wave of insurgency began when militants captured the city of Mosul on June 10 and soon afterwards took control of a number of other key cities and towns including Tal Afar, Fallujah and Baiji.
On 30 June, ratings agency Moody’s cautioned Turkey that the crisis triggered by ISIL might pose a downward risk to Turkey in its current account deficit, growth and inflation.
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