Turkey’s foreign trade deficit continues to fall amid oil plunge

The foreign trade deficit was down by 16.3 percent compared with the same month last year, falling to $4.2 billion, according to the report.      

Exports for April fell by 10.2 percent from April last year to $11.99 billion, while imports fell by 11.9 percent to $16.2 billion. 

Turkey’s foreign trade gap was $16.2 billion over the first four months of this year. 

Energy imports, which make up the country’s largest import item, declined by 33.8 percent in April to around $2 billion compared to the same month of 2015. They saw a 39 percent of shrinkage in the first four months of the year from the same period of 2015, falling to $8.5 billion amid low energy prices.

However, analysts have warned about rebounding energy prices, which will lessen the positive contribution of the energy slump in lowering Turkey’s foreign trade gap. 

The country exported goods worth $1.2 billion to Germany, its largest market, in April. Turkish exports to the U.K. amounted to $838 million, while exports to Italy were worth $583 million.      

While the share of the EU in Turkey’s exports was 39.5 percent in April 2015, this rate rose to 47.3 percent in April this year, according to TÜİK data. The country’s exports to the EU market rose by 7.5 percent to $5.7 billion in April from the same month of 2015.   

China ($1.83 billion), Germany ($1.81 billion) and Russia ($1.15 billion) were the main sources of imports in April.