Turkey’s foreign trade deficit narrows further thanks to oil slump, recovery in EU markets

The gap declined 32.5 percent in July to $4.8 billion compared to the same month of 2015, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed on Aug. 31. 

While Turkey’s exports declined 11.5 percent to $9.8 billion July compared to the same month of the previous year, its imports declined by around 20 percent to $14.6 billion. 

The country’s exports were announced as $81.5 billion in the first seven months of the year, a 3.6 percent decrease from the same period of 2015. Its imports also dropped to $114.3 billion, an 8.6 percent decline compared to the same months of the previous year. 

Turkey’s energy imports regressed to $15 billion in the first seven months of the year, a 36.5 percent decrease from the same period of 2015, showed the data. 

The country’s exports to the EU increased to $39.5 billion in the January-July period from the same period of the previous year, although its exports to Russia saw a dramatic decrease. While Turkey made an average of $300 million in exports to the country on a monthly basis last year, this figure decreased to $100 million over this year.