With rising exports and decreasing imports, Turkey’s trade deficit dropped by nearly 94 percent in October and hit $456 million. Meanwhile, the ratio of exports’ coverage of imports was 97.2 percent
Turkey's foreign trade deficit in October fell 93.8 percent year-on-year, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.
The foreign trade deficit in October totaled $456 million, improving from $7.3 billion deficit a year ago, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Last month, Turkey's exports hit $15.72 billion – up 13 percent on a yearly basis – as imports dropped to $16.17 billion with an annual decline of 23.8 percent.
"In October 2018, exports coverage imports was 97.2 percent, while it was 65.6 percent in October 2017," TurkStat said.
Turkey's top partner for exports was Germany with $1.46 billion last month, followed by the U.K. with $1.07 billion, Italy with $877 million and Iraq with $852 million.
"In October 2018, the top country for Turkey's imports was Russia with $1.86 billion. The country was followed by Germany with $1.56 billion, China with $1.37 billion and the U.S. with $883 million," the institute said.
Turkey's exports amounted to $138.7 billion in the 10-month period, marking an annual hike of 7.6 percent.
Imports totaled $190.3 billion – almost no change compared with $190.2 billion in January-October period last year.
Consequently, the country's foreign trade balance showed a deficit of $51.6 billion in the 10-month period, falling 15.7 percent on a yearly basis.
The European Union was the top trade partner of Turkey, as exports to the EU were $69.8 billion – 50.3 percent of all exports – and imports from the EU totaled $69.1 billion.
Near and Middle Eastern countries with $27.3 billion and African countries with around $11.6 billion were the other largest export markets for Turkish products.
On the imports side, the EU was followed by Asian countries with nearly $60.2 billion.
Over the past five years, the highest export-to-import ratio on a yearly basis was recorded in 2016 with 71.8 percent, while Turkey's foreign trade deficit has fallen from $99.8 billion in 2013 to $76.8 billion in 2017.
Turkey's vehicle exports topped the list with $2.5 billion and followed by machinery exports that totaled $1.4 billion in October.
The highest import item in October was lubricants and its derivatives with $3.7 billion.
The ratio of manufacturing industries' products in total imports was 75.5 percent and the ratio of high-technology products in the manufacturing industries' products was 13.3 percent in October 2018. The ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industries' products was calculated at 42.8 percent.