The primary data announced by the Customs and Trade Ministry indicated the foreign trade deficit reached $4.22 billion in April, a 16.21 percent reduction. According to the ministry, exports hit $11.99 billion with a 9.88 percent decrease in April, while imports declined to $16.21 billion, decreasing 11.62 percent.
On Friday, Economy Minister Mustafa Elitaş said they had been expecting a 2 percent or 3 percent increase in exports and the data was not what the government had had hoped for.
The ministry's data shows that during the first four months of 2016, the foreign trade deficit reached $16.24 billion, shrinking 19.96 percent, exports hit $46.76 billion with a 7.16 percent decrease and imports reached $62.99 billion, a drop of 10.84 percent during the same period.
With $1.64 billion in April, motor land vehicles, tractors, bicycles, motorcycles and other land vehicles topped the list of exported goods, followed by boilers, machines and mechanical devices with $1.18 billion, and knitwear and accessories with $789 million. While the rate of exports meeting imports in April 2015 was 72.6 percent, it was 74 percent in April of this year.
On the other hand, the value of Turkey's exports decreased 2.8 percent in April to $11.4 billion from the same period last year due to a decline in export prices, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) announced on Sunday.
The country's exports decreased 8.4 percent to $46.2 billion during the first four months of the year compared to the same period of 2015, according to TİM data. Turkey's value of total exports in the last 12 months stood at $139.6 billion, down 9.6 percent compared with the previous 12 months. Exports decreased in April after increasing a second straight month in March.
"The decline in export prices has affected decline in the country's export value," TİM President Mehmet Büyükekşi said. "However, Turkey managed to increase its export volume, which we are pleased with."
