Foreign trade deficit narrowed 7.5 pct in 2021
ANKARA
Turkey’s foreign trade gap was down 7.5 percent to $46.13 billion in 2021, compared to the previous year, according to official figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on Jan. 31.
Exports rose to $225.3 billion in 2021 with an increase of 32.8 percent, while its imports increased by 23.6 percent to $271.4 billion, TÜİK said.
In the same period, exports’ coverage of imports was 83 percent, while it was 77.3 percent in January-December 2020.
However, there was a deterioration in December 2021, when the deficit surged 49 percent from a year earlier to $6.79 billion, as exports climbed 24.9 percent and imports rose 29.9 percent.
In December, the share of intermediate goods, capital goods, and consumption goods in total imports was 79.3 percent,13.1 percent, and 7.4 percent, respectively.
In 2021, excluding the energy and gold trade, Turkey’s exports and imports were $20.9 billion and $21.6 billion, respectively.
In January-December 2021, Germany was the main recipient of Turkish export, with $19.3 billion.
It was followed by the United States and the United Kingdom with $14.7 billion and $13.7 billion, respectively.
China, on the other hand, was the top country from which Turkey imported goods, with $32.2 billion, followed by Russia with $29 billion, Germany with $21.7 billion, and the U.S. with $13.1 billion.
The ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing industry exports was 3 percent.
The Turkish Lira was some 1.4 percent stronger at 13.34 against the U.S. dollar after the release of the figures.
The currency has steadied this year after the slide in late 2021 took it to a record low of 18.4 against the dollar, fuelling a surge in inflation, before the government took steps to boost the lira including forex market interventions.
