Foreign trade deficit shrunk nearly 50 percent in September

ANKARA

Türkiye’s foreign trade came in at $5 billion in September, pointing to a 47.8 percent decline from a year ago, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

Exports fell 0.5 percent year-on-year to $22.49 billion, and the annual decline in imports was 14.6 percent to $27.5 billion.

The export/import coverage ratio improved from 70.2 percent in September last year to 81.8 percent.

Excluding energy and gold, imports were down 1.5 percent to $20.3 billion, and the foreign trade gap was $19 billion in September, TÜİK said.

Goods shipments to Germany amounted to $1.75 billion, making it Türkiye’s largest export market. German output shrank in the third quarter, official data published on Oct. 30 showed, adding to a continued gloomy picture for Europe's largest economy.

The German economy contracted by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, federal statistics agency Destatis said in preliminary figures, dragged down by lower household spending.

The U.S. ranked second at a little more than $1.2 billion, followed by Iraq at around $1.2 billion. Exports to Italy and the U.K. amounted to $1 billion each.

Türkiye’s imports from China and Russia were $3.7 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively.

Consumer goods imports continued to rise in September, increasing 37.2 percent year-on-year to $3.8 billion, while intermediate goods imports fell 24 percent to $19.6 billion.

From January to September, exports amounted to $187.2 billion, exhibiting a 0.5 percent decline from the same period of 2022.

In the first nine months of the year, imports fell 1.2 percent to $274.4 billion.

The country’s foreign trade deficit was $87.2 billion in January-September, rising 4.9 percent from a year ago.