Foreign trade deficit shrinks, exports on rise

The Turkih Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released the Temporary Foreign Trade statistics for July 2014 together with the Ministry of Customs and Trade. According to the report released on Friday, July exports worth $13.4 billion (TL 28.96 billion) increased by 2.6 percent when compared to the same month last year, while imports of $19.8 billion decreased by 13.5 percent.

Furthermore, Turkey's foreign trade deficit dropped for the seventh month in a row. July's foreign trade deficit dropped to $6.46 billion this year from $9.9 billion in the same month last year, shrinking by 34.8 percent. The rate of exports meeting imports was 56.9 percent last year and increased to 67.5 percent this year.

In line with the moderate recovery in Europe, exports to the European Union rose to $6 billion with an 11.1 percent increase in July compared to the same month of 2013, increasing to 45 percent among all exports of Turkey from 41.6 percent last year. Exports to Germany were the highest at $1.36 billion, followed by $918 million to the U.K., $590 million to Iraq and $589 million to Italy.

Turkey's highest amount of imports was from Russia at $2.15 billion followed by China, Germany and the U.S. Exports to the U.S. increased by 1.7 percent when compared to last year totaling $507.8 million. Imports from the U.S. also increased by 8.1 percent to $1.28 billion and in July, 2013 Turkey's exports to the U.S. were $499.56 million and imports were $1.18 billion.

In July, the share of the manufacturing industry was 94.9 percent in total exports. The share of high-tech products in the manufacturing industry was 3.5 percent and medium technology products' share was 32.3 percent. The share of manufacturing industry products was 77.8 percent in total imports. The high-tech products' share in imports of the manufacturing industry was around 13.7 percent and medium technology products' share was around 42.2 percent.