Exports climb to $21.3 billion in October
ANKARA
Türkiye’s export increased by 3 percent in October from a year ago to stand at $21.3 billion, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) released on Nov. 29.
Imports grew more than 31 percent on an annual basis to reach $29.2 billion.
Consequently, the country’s foreign trade balance posted a deficit of $7.87 billion, leaping nearly 422 percent compared with October 2021.
The export-import coverage ratio declined from 93.2 percent a year ago to 73 percent last month.
Excluding energy and gold imports, Türkiye’s imports exhibited an annual increase of 12.8 percent year-on-year to $18.6 billion, TÜİK said.
“The foreign trade surplus, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, was $1.13 billion dollars in October. Energy products and non-monetary gold excluding the export-import coverage ratio was 106.1 percent,” it said.
Germany remained Türkiye’s largest export market in October. Data from TÜİK showed that exports to Germany amounted to $1.69 billion. Iraq ranked second in the top exports market list at $1.42 billion, followed by the U.S. at $1.3 billion.
Exports to Russia and the U.K, amounted to $1.15 billion and $1.1 billion, respectively. The share of top five countries in Türkiye’s overall exports was 31.3 percent in October.
The manufacturing sector accounted for 95 percent of all exports, while the agriculture sector’s share was 3.1 percent and the mining and quarry’s 1.7 percent.
Imports from Russia stood at $4.99 billion, China came second at $34.6 billion. Last month Türkiye imported $2.38 billion worth of goods from Switzerland and imports from Germany amounted to $1.96 billion. Imports from the U.S. were $1.2 billion.
On a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, exports and imports fell by 2.9 percent and 4.6 percent in October from the previous month, TÜİK said.
In the January-October period, Türkiye’s exports climbed to $209 billion, rising 15.4 percent from the same period of 2021. Imports grew 39.4 percent in the first ten months of the year annually to more than $300 billion.
Consequently, the foreign trade deficit widened 168 percent in January-October from a year ago to stand at $91 billion.
In the latest edition of its Medium-Term Program, the government said that the foreign trade deficit is expected to be $105 billion at the end of 2022. It forecasts that the trade deficit will shrink to $80 billion next year as it expects energy import bill to decline from an estimated $103.5 billion this year to $85 billion in 2023.
