Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit narrowed by almost 16% in August, official data showed on Tuesday, as a decline in imports outpaced the fall in exports.
Exports were down 1.2% on an annual basis to $21.72 billion last month, while imports fell by a sharper 3.9% to $25.94 billion, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
That prompted the trade deficit to decline by 15.8% year-over-year to $4.2 billion, the data showed. Excluding energy and non-monetary gold, the trade balance posted a surplus of almost $340 million in August.
Trade Minister Ömer Bolat called August a “bright” month, during which the export-to-import coverage ratio reached its highest level in almost four years.
Excluding gold and energy, exports rose by 0.9% compared to the same month last year, reaching $20.3 billion, Bolat wrote on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.
From January through August, exports rose %4.3 to $178.2 billion, while imports increased by %5.6 to $238.2 billion, the data showed.
That meant the trade deficit expanded by 9.7% from a year ago to $60.14 billion. The annualized gap increased by $9 billion compared to the same month last year, reaching $87.6 billion.
According to Bolat, annualized exports as of August rose by $7.2 billion compared to the same period last year, reaching $269.1 billion. Imports increased by $16.2 billion to $356.7 billion.
“August was a bright month in which imports and the foreign trade deficit declined, and the export-to-import coverage ratio reached 83.8%, the highest in the last 46 months,” the minister said.
“According to our ministry’s preliminary indicators, we estimate a current account surplus of around $5 billion for August,” he added.
In July, Türkiye’s current account balance registered a surplus of nearly $1.78 billion, its first in nine months, supported by robust tourism revenues and resilient goods exports.
Excluding gold and energy, the balance posted a surplus of around $6 billion. Between January and July, the current account posted a cumulative deficit of $21.2 billion.
On a 12-month rolling basis, the deficit narrowed to $18.8 billion.
According to Bolat, exports remain robust despite challenging conditions amid weak external demand, ongoing wars, regional tensions, and uncertainty caused by U.S. tariff increases.
The top destination country for Turkish exports in August was Germany with $1.77 billion, followed by the United States with $1.27 billion and the United Kingdom with $1.15 billion.
China was the top source of imports to Türkiye with $3.9 billion, followed by Russia with $3.28 billion and Germany with $2.25 billion.
In 2024, Türkiye’s exports hit a record $262 billion despite an uncertain global outlook and slowing demand in some of Türkiye’s key export markets, like the European Union.
Imports dropped by 4.9% to $344.1 billion. The trade gap shrank by 22.7% to $82.2 billion from $106.3 billion in 2023.
The goal for 2025 is to lift exports to $280 billion, according to officials.
Bolat is due to announce preliminary figures for September on Thursday.
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