Recovery in trade gap fails to impress

ISTANBUL

Car sales to foreign countries topped Turkey’s export items in November.

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit recovered slightly in November, falling 5.5 percent from $7.57 billion to $7.16 billion over the same month last year, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

TEB research analysts said in a note to investors Dec. 28 that the fall was under global market expectations because of a weak increase in imports amid a remarkable improvement in Turkey’s exports in November.

TÜİK data showed that a 24.8 percent increase in exports to $13.83 billion drove the healing as imports also rose 12.5 percent to $20.99 billion in November.

However, seasonally adjusted figures paint a more pessimistic picture as imports increased by 0.7 percent whereas exports contracted by 2.5 percent from October to November. The figures also indicated that the cumulative current account deficit decreased from $85.3 billion to $84.9 billion from 2011 to 2012 when taking this November into account.

Exports to EU

“We are likely to be nearing the end of the adjustment in the current account deficit. On a 12-month cumulative basis, the current account deficit is likely to decline slightly in November before reversing its course in December,” TEB research analysts said.

The figures revealed that the share of exports to the European Union decreased from 44.6 percent in November 2011 to 42.1 percent in the same month this year.

Meanwhile, exports to the EU increased by 17.8 percent to $5.82 billion from November 2011 to this November. Also, the exports to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy were stronger than last month and the same period last year.