Turkey’s foreign trade deficit up by 82.5 percent

The provisional data, produced with the cooperation of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Customs and Trade and made public on Aug. 29, showed Turkey’s exports were 12.64 million USD last month with a 28.3 percent increase and imports were 21.49 billion USD with a 46.2 percent  increase compared with July 2016.

In July, foreign trade deficit was 8.84 billion USD with an 82.5 percent increase compared with July 2016.

Seasonally and calendar adjusted exports decreased by 1.6 percent while imports increased 5.3 percent compared with previous month. Calendar adjusted exports and imports increased by 16.5 percent and 25.1 percent, respectively compared with July 2016.

As compared with the same month of the previous year, exports to the EU-28 increased by 18.2 percent from 5.065 billion USD to 5.99 billion USD. The proportion of the EU countries was 47.4 percent in July exports while it was 51.4 percent in July 2016.

In July, the main partner country for exports was Germany with 1.21 billion USD. The country was followed by UAE with 1.098 billion USD, the United Kingdom with 811 million USD and Iraq with 773 million USD.

Last month, the top country for Turkey’s imports was China with 2.13 billion USD. The country was followed by Germany with 1.83 million USD, Russia with 1.8 billion USD and the U.S. with 1.38 billion USD.

Foreign trade by technology intensity covers the manufacturing industries’ products in classification of ISIC Rev.3. According to the ISIC Rev.3, the ratio of manufacturing industries products in total exports was 94.7 percent in July. The ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing industries was 2.9 percent. 

The ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industries’ products was 34.7 percent.

The ratio of manufacturing industries’ products in total imports was 83.8 percent. The ratio of high-technology products in  manufacturing industries’ products was 13.9 percent, while the ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industries’ products was 38.3 percent in July. (DHA)