Turkey’s foreign trade deficit falls 77.1 pct in September, official data shows

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit saw an annual fall of 77.1 percent in September, the country’s statistical authority announced on Oct. 31.

Last month, Turkey’s exports went up 22.4 percent year-on-year to $14.45 billion, while imports decreased by 18.3 percent to $16.3 billion.

In September, the country’s foreign trade deficit amounted to $1.87 billion, down from $8.17 billion in the same month last year.

“In September 2018, exports coverage imports was 88.5 percent while it was 59.1 percent in September 2017,” the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) said.

Official data showed that with $1.42 billion, Germany was the top market for Turkish exports last month.

“The country was followed by the United Kingdom with $1.05 billion, Italy with $816 million and Iraq with $719 million,” TÜİK said.

The institute also said the top country for Turkey’s imports was Russia with $1.7 billion in September, followed by China with $1.5 billion, Germany with $1.4 billion and the United States with $1.1 billion.

In the nine-month period, exports totaled $123.04 billion with an annual hike of 7 percent and imports were $174.16 billion, up 3.1 percent over the same period.

As a result, Turkey’s foreign trade balance in January-September posted a deficit of $51.1 billion—down 5.2 percent—as the deficit was $53.9 billion over the same period last year.

Exports to Turkey’s major trade partner, the European Union, totaled $61.9 billion or accounted for 50.4 percent of all exports, while the country’s imports from the bloc were $63.4 billion.

The near and Middle Eastern region was the second largest export market for Turkish products with $21.5 billion, followed by African countries with nearly $10.3 billion.

The EU was followed by countries in Asia with an amount of $55.2 billion on the imports side.