Foreign trade deficit at $6.6 billion in May: TÜİK

ANKARA

Türkiye posted a foreign trade deficit of $6.6 billion in May, widening 2.7 percent compared to the same month of last year.

The foreign trade gap, however, fell from April’s $12.1 billion.

The country’s exports grew 2.6 percent year-on-year last month, reaching $24.8 billion, while imports increased by 2.7 percent to $31.5 billion, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) showed on June 30.

Excluding energy and non-monetary gold, the foreign trade deficit was $1.89 billion.

The top destination country for Turkish exports was Germany with $2.96 billion, followed by the U.K. with $1.54 billion and the U.S. with $1.51 billion.

High-tech's share of the manufacturing side rose by 7 percent annually to 4 percent, and medium-high tech's share climbed 10.8 percent year-on-year to 38.9 percent in May.

China was the top source of imports to Türkiye with $4.31 billion, followed by Russia with $3.26 billion and Germany with $2.69 billion.

Consumer goods imports surged 12.8 percent from May 2024 to hit $5.6 billion, while the annual increase in intermediate goods imports was 0.7 percent to $21.3 billion. Consumer goods and intermediate goods accounted for 18 percent and 68 percent of total imports.

Capital goods imports rose 2.1 percent annually to $4.6 billion.

In January-May, the country's exports totaled $110.9 billion, up 3.4 percent from the same period of 2024, and imports were at $152.16 billion, rising 5.8 percent.

The foreign trade deficit in the five-month period was at $41.25 billion, widening by 12.7 percent from a year ago.