Türkiye's foreign trade gap shrinks by 56% to $6.3B in January
Crude oil tanker Nevskiy Prospect, owned by Russia's leading tanker group Sovcomflot, transits the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Türkiye, Sept. 6, 2020. (Reuters Photo)


Türkiye's foreign trade deficit narrowed by 56.4% year-over-year to nearly $6.3 billion (TL 196.46 billion) in January, official data shared by the country's statistical authority showed on Wednesday.

The shortfall was down from $14.29 billion in the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The country's exports rose by 3.5% on an annual basis to $19.99 billion in January, while its imports dropped by 22% to $26.22 billion, the data showed.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, the exports stood at $18.59 billion, with a 3.0% rise compared to the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, imports, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, were $18.66 billion, with a 6.2% decrease in January 2024.

The data showed that the export-import coverage ratio was 76.2% this January, up from 57.5% in the same month last year.

The foreign trade gap, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, was $68 million in January 2024, according to TurkStat.

With 93%, products from the manufacturing industries accounted for the lion's share of overall exports in the month, followed by agriculture-forestry-fishing at 5% and mining-quarrying at 1.5%, respectively.

The foreign trade volume dropped by 1.8% and stood at $37.25 billion in January, according to the data. Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold export-import coverage realized at 99.6%.

Germany was the main destination for Turkish goods, with $1.76 billion, while Russia was the biggest source of imports, with $4.32 billion.

Regarding exports, Germany was followed by the U.S. with $1.22 billion, Iraq with $1.01 billion, the U.K. with $1.02 billion and Italy with $999 million.

On the other hand, the list of top five countries Türkiye imported most from, apart from Russia, included China with $2.89 billion, Germany with $1.91 billion, the U.S. with $1.4 billion and Italy with $1.18 billion.

In January 2024, seasonally and calendar-adjusted exports and imports decreased by 5.1% and 4.8% respectively, compared with the previous month.

According to the special trade system, exports were $17.92 billion, up 2.5% year-over-year in January and imports were $24.8 billion, with a 22.1% decrease compared to January 2023.