Turkey’s foreign trade gap widened over 54 pct year-on-year in February
ANKARA
Turkey’s foreign trade deficit rose to $5.76 billion in the second month of the year with a 54.2 percent year-on-year increase, official data has shown.
Data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed that Turkey made $13.18 billion worth of exports in February by a 9 percent year-on-year increase.
Turkey’s imports were worth $18.94 billion in February by a 19.7 percent increase compared to the same month of 2017.
Earlier in March, preliminary data from the Customs and Trade Ministry showed that a rise in energy imports had played a key role in pushing up the February foreign trade gap.
In the first two months of the year, Turkey’s exports rose to $25.26 billion by a 9.8 percent year-on-year increase, according to TÜİK data.
Its imports were worth $40.46 billion by a 28.8 percent increase compared to the same month of last year.
In February, Turkey’s exports to the European Union increased by 23.8 percent compared to the same month of 2017, reaching $6.84 billion. The share of the EU countries was 51.9 percent in February 2018 while it was 45.7 percent in the same month of 2017.
The main partner for exports was Germany with $1.36 billion, followed by Italy with $864 million, the U.K. with $840 million and the U.S. with $666 million.
The top country for imports was China as Turkey imported $1.86 billion worth goods from this country. The country was followed by Russia with $1.81 billion and Germany with $1.66 billion.
