Turkey's foreign trade deficit down in July

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's foreign trade balance ran a $5.98 billion deficit in July, marking a year-on-year fall of 32.6 percent, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday.

Last month, the country's exports amounted to $14.07 billion with a 11.6 percent annual hike, while imports totaled $20.05 billion with a 6.7 percent decrease, compared with July 2017.

"In July 2018, exports coverage [ratio to] imports was 70.2 percent while it was 58.7 percent in July 2017," TurkStat said.

The institute noted that from January to July this year, exports were $96.27 billion -- up 7 percent on a yearly basis -- and imports were some $143 billion with an annual hike of 10.2 percent.

According to official figures, the seven-month trade balance showed a deficit of $46.75 billion, up 10.2 percent over the same period last year.

TurkStat also reported that Turkey's exports to the European Union in July surged 14.7 percent, year-on-year, amounting to $6.8 billion.

"The proportion of the EU countries was 48.7 percent in July 2018 while it was 47.4 percent in July 2017," the institute said.

Statistical authority noted that the main partner for exports was Germany with $1.29 billion last month -- followed by the United Kingdom with around $1 billion, the U.S. with $850 million and Italy with $750 million.

"In July 2018, the top country for Turkey’s imports was China with $1.97 billion," it said. "The country was followed by Russia with $1.88 billion, Germany with $1.69 billion and the U.S. with $1.12 billion."

Official data showed that the ratio of manufacturing industries products in total exports was 94.9 percent in July, amounting to $13.36 billion.

"The ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing industries was 2.8 percent," TurkStat said. "The ratio of medium-high technology products in manufacturing industries’ products was 37.1 percent."

The institute said the ratio of manufacturing industries’ products in total imports was 78 percent last month, noting that the intermediate goods claimed the top spot with 75.8 percent in Turkey's overall imports.

In 2014, Turkey's exports hit an all-time high of $157.6 billion while the figure was nearly $157 billion last year.

Over the past five years, the highest export-to-import ratio was recorded in 2016 with 71.8 percent, while the country's foreign trade deficit has fallen from $99.8 billion in 2013 to $76.8 billion in 2017.