Turkey's industrial trade deficit and imported input dependency after 2000

After the economic crisis in year 2000-2001, it was observed that the external competitiveness of Turkish economy increased as a consequence of the implemented reforms and the current policies in the country. However, both tending to import the goods that needed on account of some shortcomings of capital, investment, raw materials, technology and causing it to become permanent, increased the country's dependence on foreign inputs. The purpose of this study is to investigate and find out which sectors are more dependent on foreign inputs. It is considered that the identification of these sectors, may guide the economic policies to be implemented in the future. The direct and indirect dependence of Turkish manufacturing on foreign inputs between the years 2000 and 2018 is calculated with the help of the input-output tables taken from the OECD database. By comparing the other sectors, some conclusions are reached that refined petroleum and petroleum products are the intermediate goods that widely required and commonly depended. Refined petroleum and petroleum products sector, which is the most important input for Turkish manufacturing industry, is gaining great importance with the development of technology day after day. Since it is not possible to meet the increasing demand with its own country's resources, the dramatic raise in the imports of these sectors expanded the dependency significantly. In addition, it was observed that the dependence of medium and high technology industries on imported intermediate goods increased more than low and medium technology industries. Despite the fact that the manufacturing industry is open to foreign trade, the insufficient support of domestic production and the inability of the implemented policies to create a structural transformation increased the dependence on foreign trade in the country.