Turkey’s foreign trade deficit narrows in June due to oil plunge

ANKARA

CİHAN photo

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit fell 21.6 percent in June from the same month in 2014 and 16.43 percent in the first half of the year from the same period in 2014, indicating improvement for three months in a row, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on July 31. 

“In June, exports were down 6.9 percent to $11 billion, and imports dropped 12.5 percent to $18.2 billion year-on-year,” the report said.

The foreign trade deficit narrowed to $6.2 billion, an improvement of 21.6 percent from $7.9 billion in June 2014. 

Turkey’s energy imports contracted by 26.4 percent in June to $3.32 billion and by 24.6 percent to $20.6 billion in the first half of the year compared to the previous year, according to the TÜİK data. 

Exports to the European Union, Turkey’s largest trading partner, were down 6.6 percent.

The main partner for exports was Germany at $1.4 billion. Germany was followed by the United Kingdom at $800 million, Iraq at $690 million and Italy at $600 million.

The top providers of Turkey’s imports were China at $2 billion, Germany at $1.9 billion, Russia at $1.75 billion and Italy at $1 billion.

Turkey’s exports decreased 8.1 percent in the first half of the year to $73.26 billion from the same period of 2014, due to the negative effects of parities on exports and geopolitical risks in neighboring countries, the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM) announced on July 1. 

“A decrease of some 18 percent in the euro-U.S. dollar parity in June from the same month of 2014 led to around a $1.2 billion loss in Turkey’s monthly exports. The loss upon the forex changes reached $6.8 billion in the first half of the year,” said TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi.