Türkiye’s trade deficit widened to $8.7 billion (TL 177.47 billion) in April, a 42.1% increase from a year earlier, official data showed on Tuesday.
The shortfall was up from $6.14 billion in the same month a year ago, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
Exports dropped 17.1% year-over-year to $19.3 billion in April, propelled by a fall in mining, quarrying and manufacturing.
The data showed that imports declined 4.8% from a year ago to $28.1 billion.
Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye posted a foreign trade gap of $3.82 billion last month.
The exports-to-imports coverage ratio decreased to 68.9% versus 79.1% in April 2022.
The data also showed the country’s energy import bill decreased by 36.3% year-over-year, $4.95 billion in April.
The energy thus accounted for 17.6% of the overall April import figures.
Crude oil imports registered a 33.8% decrease to 1.99 million tons, compared to just over 3 million tons in April last year.
Türkiye’s shipments to its leading trading partner Germany amounted to $1.59 billion last month, followed by the U.S. with $1.16 billion, Iraq with $970 million, Italy with $954 million, and the U.K. with $945 million.
In April, Türkiye imported the most from Russia ($4.18 billion), China ($3.69 billion), Germany ($2.17 billion), Italy ($1.15 billion) and the U.S. ($1.12 billion)
In January through April, Türkiye’s overseas shipments slipped 3% from the prior year to $80.9 billion, the data showed, while imports increased 7.1% to $124.3 billion.
The foreign trade deficit grew 32.9% from last year to $43.4 billion in the four months.
