Turkey's foreign trade deficit down 59 percent in August, TurkStat says

Turkey's foreign trade deficit saw an annual fall of 59 percent in August, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey's imports decreased by 22.7 percent year-on-year to $14.8 billion in August, while exports fell 6.5 percent to $12.4 billion.

Last month, the country's foreign trade deficit was $2.4 billion, down from $5.9 billion in the same month last year.

"In August 2018, exports coverage imports was 83.6 percent while it was 69.1 percent in August 2017," TurkStat said.

Exports to European Union countries decreased by 6.4 percent from $6.4 billion to $5.6 billion. The proportion of the EU countries was 45.4 percent in August, while it was 45.3 percent percent last year in the same period.

In August, the main partner country for exports was Germany with $1.1 billion. This was followed by the U.K. with $900 million, Iraq with $648 million and the U.S. with $637 million.

The top supplier for Turkey's imports was Russia with $1.5 billion. Russia was followed by China with $1.4 billion, Germany with $1.2 billion and the U.S. with $920 million.

The ratio of manufacturing industry products in total exports was 94.9 percent in August. High-technology products made up 2.9 percent of total manufacturing industry products, while the ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industry products was 30.5 percent.

During the period of January to August, Turkish exports increased by 5.2 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching $108.6 billion. Imports also rose by 5.9 percent and totaled $157.8 billion.

The foreign trade deficit in this period surged by 7.6 percent and hit $49.1 billion.