A total of 93,095 small businesses closed in Turkey during the first nine months of the year, according to figures from the Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK).
The number had increased by 9,793, or 11.8 percent, from 83,302 in the same period of 2025.
İstanbul recorded the most closures between January and September, with 10,956, followed by the western province of İzmir with 6,421, the Mediterranean province of Antalya with 5,009, the capital Ankara with 4,862 and the northwestern province of Bursa with 4,246.
In September alone 1,259 businesses closed in İstanbul, accounting for about 12 percent of the 10,426 closures nationwide, according to TESK’s records.
The total comprises 73,121 businesses removed from the registry and 19,974 that stopped operating in a registered line of business, the two categories TESK uses to count closures.
The same statistics list 219,177 new business registrations between January and September, exceeding the number of closures.
The figures come as Turkey faces inflation and borrowing costs that affect both business expenses and consumers’ spending power.
Annual consumer inflation fell to 29.73 percent in September, while prices increased 24.32 percent from the beginning of the year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Turkey’s central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 37 percent in September and cited weakness in domestic demand as it sought to curb inflation.
The government returned to higher interest rates after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election in 2023, reversing years of policies that kept borrowing costs low despite inflation and a decline in the lira’s value.
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