Turkey’s foreign trade gap rises to $76.7 billion in 2017

ANKARA

Turkey’s foreign trade gap rose to $76.7 billion in 2017, with a 36.8 percent year-on-year increase, official data has shown. 

The country’s exports in 2017 amounted to over $157.05 billion, a 10.2 percent rise compared with the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced on Jan. 31.

Imports to Turkey, meanwhile, climbed 17.7 percent to $233.79 billion, according to TÜİK data.

In December 2017, Turkey’s exports were $13.9 billion with a 8.6 percent increase and imports were $23 billion with a 25.4 percent increase compared to December 2016, leading to a $9.2 billion foreign trade gap with a 63.5 percent year-on-year increase.

Exports to the European Union increased by 15.6 percent in December 2017 and reached $6.5 billion. Thus the share of the EU in Turkey’s exports rose to 47.1 percent in December 2017 from 44.3 percent in the same month of 2016.

The main partner for exports was Germany in the last month of 2017 with $1.3 billion, followed by the United Kingdom, Italy and Iraq.

In December 2017, the top country for Turkey’s imports was also Germany with $2.2 billion. Germany was followed by China with nearly $2.1 billion and Russia with nearly $1.9 billion.