Foreign trade deficit decreased 32% y/y to $4.97bn in April, after March foreign deficit figures indicated the first increase of 18% y/y, data of the statistics office TUIK showed on May 29. The market had expected a foreign trade deficit of $4.77bn. Turkey’s foreign trade shortfall fell by 37% y/y in January and it dropped 9.5% y/y in February.
Exports in April rose by a slight 0.2% y/y to $13.4bn while the pace of decline in imports accelerated again to 11.1% y/y from 6.1% y/y in the previous month and the 7.1% y/y decline in February. Imports amounted to $18.4bn in April with consumer goods and capital goods imports rising 1.8% y/y and 6.6% y/y, respectively, and intermediate goods imports falling 17.6% y/y.
On a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, exports rose 5.3% m/m and imports declined 0.3% m/m in April.
Exports to the EU fell by 10.4% y/y to $5.28bn in April. Shipments of goods to the Middle East, which accounted for 22.4% in total export revenues, were down 3.1% y/y while exports to North America (4.4% share in total exports) rose by 3.6% y/y. Exports to Africa (9.2% share in total) fell by 2% y/y in the month.
Data from TUIK also showed that Switzerland became the largest market for Turkish exporters in April, representing a 9.2% share and 1,579% m/m rise while Turkey’s exports to Germany, the second largest market, dropped 9.2% y/y.
Turkey paid $3.03bn for energy imports in April, representing a 32% y/y decline while the energy import bill totaled $13.9bn in the first four months of 2015, pointing to a 24.4% decline from a year ago. Precious metals exports (mostly gold) rose by 362% y/y to $1.77bn.
In January-April, Turkey’s foreign trade deficit shrank 18% y/y to $20.2bn. Exports fell by 5.7% y/y to $50.5bn and imports declined by 11.1% y/y to $18.4bn in the first four months of the year. The government foresees a foreign trade deficit of $85bn for 2015. It expects exports and imports to be $173bn and $258bn this year. Turkey’s foreign trade deficit fell 15.3% last year to $84.6bn.
Turkey's Foreign Trade |
||||||
|
Exports |
y/y |
Imports |
y/y |
Deficit |
y/y |
|
($ bn) |
(%) |
($ bn) |
(%) |
($ bn) |
(%) |
2008 |
132.0 |
23.1 |
202.0 |
18.8 |
-69.9 |
11.4 |
2009 |
102.1 |
-22.6 |
140.9 |
-30.2 |
-38.8 |
-44.5 |
2010 |
113.9 |
11.5 |
185.5 |
31.7 |
-71.7 |
84.8 |
2011 |
134.9 |
18.5 |
240.8 |
29.8 |
-105.9 |
47.8 |
2012 |
152.5 |
13.0 |
236.5 |
-1.8 |
-84.1 |
-20.6 |
2013 |
151.8 |
-0.4 |
251.7 |
6.4 |
-99.9 |
18.8 |
2014 |
157.6 |
3.8 |
242.2 |
-3.8 |
-84.6 |
-15.3 |
Jan-15 |
12.3 |
-0.7 |
16.6 |
-13.7 |
-4.3 |
-37.3 |
Jan-Feb |
24.6 |
-3.4 |
33.6 |
-10.6 |
-9.0 |
-25.7 |
Q1 |
37.1 |
-7.5 |
52.3 |
-9.0 |
-15.2 |
-12.5 |
Jan-Apr |
50.5 |
-5.7 |
70.7 |
-9.5 |
-20.2 |
-18.0 |
Source: tuik |
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