Turkish trade gap falls as imports decrease

ANKARA

Fresh data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has shown the country’s foreign trade deficit narrowed in February, but the data does not point at an improvement since it was engineered by a drop in imports rather than an increase in foreign sales.

In February, the deficit narrowed to $4.65 billion, down from $5.2 billion for same month last year, a 10 percent decrease, continuing the trend of the previous month.

However, TÜİK valued February’s exports at $12.3 billion, a 6 percent decrease year-on-year, while imports also declined to $16.9 billion, a 7.2 percent decrease.

The country’s exports to the EU, Turkey’s main trading partner, declined by 4.3 percent in February to $5.2 billion. The U.K. was the largest receiver of Turkish goods in February, worth $1.1 billion.

China was the main exporter to Turkey in February, as the country imported $2.1 billion worth of goods from the world’s second-largest economy.