Head of the Russian-Turkish Business Council Kani Karaaslan said that the trade turnover between Turkey and Russia may reach $60 billion by the end of 2022, the Dünya newspaper quoted the businessman as saying on Thursday.
"The trade turnover between the two countries has exceeded $30 billion so far [at the end of six months] and is moving toward the $50 billion mark. It could grow to $60 billion by the end of the year if the central banks of the two countries manage to prevent losses caused by exchange rate differences," he said.
According to the newspaper, Karaaslan advocated the transition of investors and exporters to mutual settlements in national currencies. In his opinion, in order to develop bilateral trade one should make not current, but long-term plans for 5-10 years. "This is all the more obvious given that the Western sanctions against Russia are likely to be extended," the head of the business association added.
On June 8, during his visit to Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the process of transition to national currencies for mutual settlements between the two countries is at an advanced stage. Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are discussing the use of national currencies in the calculations. This issue is expected to be a subject of negotiations at the upcoming meeting of the two leaders on August 5 in Sochi.
Last year, the trade turnover between Russia and Turkey was about 35 billion dollars. This year, the Turkish side expects the bilateral trade to grow to $50 billion.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Moscow-Live/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS