Chronic trade deficit moderately narrows
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
This arial photo shows Turkey’s third largest city İzmir’s busy industrial harbor. Turkey’s trade gap narrowed in November, figures say.
Turkey’s chronic trade deficit narrowed by $200 million in November compared to the same month last year, according to official figures revealed Dec. 30.However, the country’s 11 month deficit, which is already close to $100 billion, still raises major concerns.
The month-on-month deficit dropped from $7.7 billion to $7.5 billion in November, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) data.
Turkey’s exports in November rose 18.5 percent in comparison with the same month in 2010, reaching to $11 billion in one month.
Imports, meanwhile, also rose by 8.8 percent to $18.6 billion in November compared to the same month last year. The 11 month deficit jumped by 53.3 percent to $97.7 billion, the data said.
Exports in the same period rose 20 percent to $122.5 from $102 billion in 2010. Imports rose 33.5 percent to $220.2 billion from $162.9 billion in 2010.
‘Better than expected’
“November foreign trade data is better than expected,” said Özgür Altuğ, chief economist of BGC Partners, in an email statement. “We observe an improvement in the performance of the country compared to previous months, which is very good news during the European debt crisis and Arab Spring,” Altuğ said. “The improvement is still too small, but at least November data confirmed the deterioration in foreign trade balance is finally over.”
The figures indicate the trade deficit gap is now in a gradual slowdown period, according to state-run lender Vakıfbank. k HDN