Türkiye’s current account deficit at $45.2 billion last year

ANKARA

Türkiye’s current account deficit came in at $45.15 billion in 2023, shrinking from  $49.09 billion in the previous year, data from the Central Bank has shown.

In December alone, the current account deficit was $2.09 billion, declining from $2.77 billion in November. This was less than the $3.3 billion gap economists had expected for the month.

Gold and energy excluded, the current account balance recorded a net surplus of $4.16 billion in December, the Central Bank said on Feb. 13.

The goods deficit was $4.6 billion with exports at $22.7 billion and imports amounting to $27.2 billion. In the whole of 2023, the trade deficit shrank from $89.6 billion in 2022 to $86.6 billion last year.

The balance of payment figures also showed that services recorded a net surplus of $2.57 million. Under services, travel items had a net inflow of $1.7 million. In 2023, total net flow under travel items was $41 billion, up from $37.3 billion a year earlier.

In the medium-term program the government forecasts a current account deficit of $42.5 billion in 2023.

Direct investments recorded a net inflow of $317 million in December, declining from more than $1 billion in the previous month.

Last year, net direct investment inflows into Türkiye amounted to $4.7 billion against the inflows of $8.7 billion in 2022, the numbers from the bank showed.

Portfolio investment recorded a net inflow of $1.69 billion.

“As regards to sub-items of liabilities, non-residents’ transactions on equity securities and government domestic debt securities recorded net purchases $1.2 billion and $1.15 million, respectively, in December,” the bank said in a statement.

In 2023, net portfolio investment inflows were $8.3 billion, which compared favorably with the outflow of $13.7 billion in the previous year.

In December, non-resident banks’ deposit accounts held within domestic banks increased by $1.7 billion, with an increase of $1.6 billion in foreign currency and $44 million in Turkish Lira accounts, according to the statement.

Official reserves increased by $1.98 billion in the month.

In the medium-term program the government had forecast a current account deficit of $42.5 billion for 2023, or 4 percent of the estimated GDP.

The government expects the current account deficit to shrink to $34.7 billion this year and to $31.7 billion in 2025.