Turkish trade deficit narrows in January

ISTANBUL

DAILY NEWS photo

Turkey’s January trade deficit has contracted 6.8 percent compared to last year’s same month to decrease to $6.82 billion, falling below market expectations.

According to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the rise in exports, which reached $12.47 billion with an 8.6 percent increase, outpaced imports that recorded a slight rise of 2.6 percent to become $19.29 billion.

The import coverage of the exports during the month increased to 64.7 percent, compared to 61.1 percent in January of last year.

The signs of recovery in the European Union market have also started to show in the foreign trade data, as the share of the EU countries among Turkish exporter destinations soared to 44 percent from 42.1 percent of last year. Exports to the EU rose 13.7 percent on an annual basis, from $4.83 billion to $5.5 billion, TÜİK data showed.

Germany, Turkey’s main trader partner throughout January as well, received exports that jumped 20 percent to $1.25 billion.

Iraq with $1.019 billion and the United Kingdom with $783 million followed Germany as top markets.
The top import country, meanwhile, was Russia, from where $2.449 billion goods were brought to Turkey.