Turkey’s 2014 current account deficit narrows to $45.84 billion

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

DAILY NEWS Photo

Turkey’s current account deficit has narrowed to $45.84 billion, shrinking by $18.82 billion from last year, in line with expectations, data from the Central Bank showed on Feb. 11.

The current account deficit shrank by $18.82 billion in 2014, from 64.66 billion dollars in 2013, due to the oil slump and lira depreciation of around 30 percent over the same period. These two factors hit imports and pushed the trade deficit down by 15.4 percent.

“The decrease in the current account deficit is mainly attributable to the $16.32 billion decrease in the foreign trade deficit, which is at around $63.59 billion,” said the Central Bank.

There was also a $2.51 billion increase in the services surplus, which reached $25.35 billion, as well as a $263 million decrease in the primary income deficit, which was $8.72 billion.

With regard to the government’s domestic debt securities, non-residents conducted net purchases of $370 million, a sharp drop from the net purchases of $4.13 billion in 2013.

For bond issues in international capital markets, Turkish banks and other sectors borrowed a total of $10.2 billion and $3.18 billion, respectively.

The deposits of nonresident Turkish citizens within the Central Bank recorded a net outflow of $2.33 billion.