Turkey and Germany in the Balkans: competing with each other?

Abstract

This paper aims to see whether there is a commercial and financial rivalry between Turkey and Germany in the Balkans by examining the export volumes, exported items, and foreign direct investments of these two countries to five Balkan countries. Our findings show that the commercial competition between Turkey and Germany in the Balkans is not serious. However, as the export growth of Turkey in the region continues to increase as it has done in the last two decades, Turkey has the potential to be a serious competitor to Germany in electrical goods and appliances, motor vehicles parts and components, power generating machinery and vehicles, metal articles, specific and general industrial machines, and plastics.