Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose 16.7 percent in April compared to the same month in 2016, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said yesterday. The monthly deficit was $4.9 billion as imports rose 9.9 percent year-on-year to $17.7 billion, while exports were up 7.4 percent to $12.8 billion.

In the first four months of the year, exports rose 8.7 percent to $50.6 billion, while imports rose by 8.3 percent to $68.2 billion, TurkStat said. The deficit during that period was $17.5 billion, a 7.1 percent increase over the same period in 2016.

Exports to the EU rose by 2.2 percent to $5.7 billion in April, up from $5.6 billion in April 2016.

Germany was Turkey's largest export market with $1.1 billion in April, followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with $1.02 billion, Iraq with $857 million and the U.K. with $737 million.

The majority of imports came from China at $1.64 billion, followed by Germany with $1.62 billion, Russia with $1.4 billion and the U.S. with $980 million.

The share of the EU, Turkey's biggest export market, which includes 28 European countries, was 45 percent of the total export volume, down from 47.3 percent share in April 2016. However, exports to the EU were up by 2.2 percent in volume, equaling $5.8 billion.

Energy imports increase by 33 pct in April

Energy imports increased by 33 percent to $2.68 billion in April from $2.01 billion in April last year, according to data released by TurkStat yesterday. The data shows that Turkey's April imports totaled $17.7 billion, 15 percent of which were energy imports.

Additionally, the country's crude oil imports saw a 22.3 percent increase in April compared to the same period in 2016. Turkey imported approximately 2.38 million tons of crude oil in April 2017 compared to nearly 1.94 million tons in April 2016.