Turkish exporters' head says payment issues with Russia trade increased

ISTANBUL, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Turkish exporters to Russia have faced more payments problems in recent weeks due to year-end auditing, but the situation should get better next month, Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM) Chairman Mustafa Gultepe said on Tuesday.

The problems come at an already challenging time for Turkish exporters, facing generally weak markets and a hit to competitiveness from soaring inflation.

According to TIM data, Russia ranks seventh in the list of countries to which Turkish companies export, with some $9.4 billion worth of goods exported last year.

Money transfers made by Russian companies not included in Western sanctions, imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, have until now been conducted without problems, but end-year auditing and checks have caused a slowdown, Gultepe said.

"The problem in payments in trade with Russia has become more frequent for the last 15-20 days ... but I think it will get better after January," he said.

Gultepe said exporters want the government to implement economic policies that boost their competitiveness, adding orders from the usual major buyers had decreased sharply.

"Companies could shed more personnel in the first quarter of this year. Within the last year, major purchasing groups have decreased their orders by some 30%. This is reflected in employment figures," he said at TIM's annual evaluation meeting.

Turkey exported more than $255 billion last year, according to official data, with the government encouraging production and exports to reduce the country's chronic current account deficit.

TIM expects exports to reach $267 billion this year.

Under a series of measures introduced to support the lira and boost central bank foreign exchange reserves after a lira crisis in late 2021, the central bank requires exporters to sell a portion of their forex export revenues to the bank.

Gultepe said that due to the relatively stable exchange rate currently, exporters had asked the bank to raise the percentage of export income that they must convert to lira to 60% from 40%, providing that the conversion premium is doubled to 4%. (Reporting by Ceyda Caglayan; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun and Daren Butler; Editing by Mark Potter)