Turkey’s current account balance registered a deficit of $4.63 billion in August, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) said Monday.
The balance had posted a $3.3 billion surplus in the same period of 2019.
Bringing a 12-month rolling deficit to $23.2 billion as of this August, this development is mainly driven by the net outflow of $5.3 billion in the good deficit increasing by $3.9 billion.
Turkey's foreign trade deficit, the main component of the current account, surged 168.2% year-on-year in August to nearly $6.3 billion under the general trade system, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Exports fell 5.7% and imports jumped 20.4% compared with August 2019.
Furthermore, the net inflow of $1.1 billion in services decreased by $4.6 billion compared to the same month of the previous year, the bank said.
The current account balance, excluding gold and energy, indicated a $973 million surplus in comparison to the $6.24 billion surpluses observed in the same month of the previous year.
The balance for August was expected to post a deficit of $3.9 billion, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) survey conducted Friday.
Reuters poll forecast for a deficit of $4.6 billion in the month.
The year-end current account balance is forecast to register a gap of $28.6 billion, according to the survey. For the whole year, Reuters poll expects a deficit of $33 billion.
Turkey's current account balance in July saw a deficit of $1.8 billion.
Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said last month that Ankara expected a deficit of $24.4 billion, or 3.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, adding that without the downturn in tourism and surging demand for gold, Turkey would have posted a surplus of $12.4 billion.
