Turkey’s foreign trade gap regresses to $5.5 bln in June: Ministry

ANKARA

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit declined to $5.5 billion in June with a nearly 8.9 percent year-on-year decrease, preliminary data from the Customs and Trade Ministry has shown.

While Turkey’s exports were nearly $13 billion in June with a 1.2 percent decline compared to the same month of 2017, its imports stood at $18.5 billion with a 3.6 percent year-on-year decline, according to the ministry data, as reported by Reuters on July 2.

In the first six months of the year, Turkey’s foreign trade deficit, however, rose to $40.7 billion with a 31.6 percent increase compared to the same period of 2017.

In the same period, Turkey’s exports were $82 billion with a 6.3 percent year-on-year increase. Its imports were $123 billion with a 13.5 percent year-on-year increase.

In June, Turkey’s main export item was composed of motorized vehicles worth $2.1 billion, followed by machineries worth $1.2 billion and iron and steel products worth $880 million.

In the same month, Turkey’s top import item was composed of mineral fuels worth $3.5 billion, followed by machineries worth $2.2 billion and iron and steel products worth $1.6 billion.

In June, the largest amount of exports was made to Germany with $1.3 billion, followed by the United Kingdom with $891 million and Italy with $817 million.

In the first half of the year, motorized vehicle exports again topped the export list with $13.8 billion.