Foreign trade gap continues to narrow

ANKARA

Türkiye's foreign trade deficit continued to narrow in October, hitting $65.8 billion for the first 10 months of the year, down 30.1 percent year-on-year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) data showed on Nov. 28.

The country's exports totaled $216.2 billion in the first 10 months, while imports amounted to $282 billion.

In October alone, exports were at $23.5 billion while imports totaled $29.4 billion.

The foreign trade gap was at $5.9 billion in October, improving 10.5 percent on a yearly basis, according to official data.

“Exports, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, were $22.05 billion with a 7.2 percent increase in October 2024. Imports, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, were $22.68 billion with a 2.4 percent increase,” TÜİK said in a written statement.

In the January-October period, the share of manufacturing industry products in total exports was 94.2 percent, while the share of high-tech products in the first 10 months of manufacturing industry exports was 3.4 percent.

The main partner country for exports was Germany with $17.97 billion, following by the United States with $13.38 billion and the United Kingdom with $12.49 billion.

Conversely, China was the main source for Türkiye's imports with $37.4 billion, followed by Russia with $35.5 billion and Germany with $22.18 billion.

In October 2024, seasonally and calendar adjusted exports and imports increased by 0.5 percent 3.1 percent, respectively, compared with the previous month. In the same period, while calendar adjusted exports increased by 0.2 percent, imports decreased by 1.1 percent, compared with October 2023.