Foreign trade deficit up 22 pct to $12.1 billion in April

ANKARA

Türkiye ran a foreign trade deficit of $12.09 billion in April, up 22.3 percent year-on-year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on May 29.

The country's exports totaled $20.8 billion, rising 7.8 percent, while imports amounted to $32.89 billion, up 12.7 percent year-on-year.

The export-import coverage ratio was at 63.2 percent last month, down from 66.1 percent in April last year.

The foreign trade deficit, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, was $6.16 billion, said the statistics authority.

On a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, exports declined by 7.8 percent month-on-month, while imports surged 4.9 percent monthly.

Consumer goods imports surged 10 percent annually to $5.4 billion, intermediate goods imports were up 12.5 percent to $22.8 billion and capital goods imports rose by 14.5 percent to $4.6 billion last month.

Germany was the largest buyer of Turkish goods in April with exports to this country amounting to $1.77 billion. The U.K. came in second at $1.35 billion, followed by the U.S. at $1.15 billion.

Exports to Italy and France were $1 billion and $851 million, respectively.

During the first four-month period, exports were $86.1 billion, up 3.7 percent and imports $120.7 billion, rising 6.6 percent.

April’s foreign trade gap stood at $34.58 billion, rising 14.7 percent compared to the same period of last year.