Macro Indicators

3/30/2018

The Growing Foreign Trade Deficit of Turkey Reached $5.76 Billion in February

The Foreign Trade Deficit of Turkey in reached $5.761 billion with a 54.2% increase in February 2018. Thus the rate of exports meeting imports declined to 69%. While the exports to the EU increased by 23.4% in the same period, the most exports were made to Germany with $1,359 billion. The most imports were made from China with $1,863 billion of imports

The Foreign Trade Deficit which affects Turkey's current deficit the most continues to increase. Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has published the foreign trade statistics of February 2018.

The total exports of Turkey in February 2018 reached $13,176 billion with 9% increase compared to the same period of the last year while imports showed a higher increase with 19.7%, reaching $18,936 billion. Thus, Foreign Trade Deficit reached $5,761 billion with 54.2% increase. Foreign Trade Deficit was $3,736 billion in February 2017.

On the other hand, the rate of exports meeting imports declined to 69.6% in February 2018. This rate was 76.4% in the same period last year.

The 2-month Foreign Trade Deficit for January and February 2018 reached $14,838 billion with 83.7% increase compared to the same period of last year. Foreign Trade Deficit in the same period of last year was $8,079 billion.

Exports to the EU increased by 23.8% in this period

It is seen that the exports made to the European Union (EU) member states reached $6,844 billion with 23.8% increase compared to the same month of last year. The total share of the EU states in the total exports rose to 51.9%. This share was 45.7% in the same month of last year.

Meanwhile, the most exports in February were made to Germany with $1,359 billion of exports, which was followed by Italy with $864 million, the United Kingdom with $840 million, and the United States with $666 million.

The most imports in February were made from China with $1,863 billion of export. It is followed by Russia with $1,812 billion, Germany with $1,663 billion, and France with $875 million.

On the other hand, the share of high-tech products in the manufacturing industry exports was only 3.4% while it was 14.9% for the manufacturing industry imports.