Foreign trade deficit continues to shrink, shows ministry data

ISTANBUL

Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit continued to decline in August, narrowing 43.4 percent year-on-year to $4.93 billion last month, according to the Trade Ministry on Sept. 2.

This marked the lowest level of foreign trade deficit in 34 months.

Exports grew 2.4 percent from a year ago to $22.1 billion, an all-time high for the month of August, while imports plunged nearly 11 percent to $26.99 billion.

The export/import coverage ratio improved 10.5 points from August 2023 to climb to 81.7 percent. Excluding energy and gold imports, the coverage ratio was 98.6 percent.

Exports to Germany amounted to $1.67 billion, according to the ministry data. Shipments of goods to the U.S. and the U.K. generated $1.34 billion and $1.2 billion in export revenues in August, respectively.

On the imports side, China was the Türkiye’s largest supplier, followed by Russia and Germany.

The country’s imports from China and Russia were $4 billion and $3.36 billion, respectively. Imports from Germany amounted to $2 billion.

Türkiye spent $18.8 billion on imported intermediate goods in August, a 13.1 percent decline from a year ago. Capital goods imports plunged 10.7 percent year-on-year to $4 billion.

Consumer goods imports, however, inched up 1.1 percent from August last year to $4.18 billion.

In the first nine months of 2024, Türkiye’s exports amounted to $170.8 billion, pointing to an annual increase of 3.9 percent, but imports fell 3.7 percent to $396.5 billion.

Consequently, the foreign trade deficit fell 33.6 percent to $54.9 billion.

The 12-month rolling exports and imports stood at $262 billion and $340.6 billion, respectively.