Turkey's foreign trade gap falls 43.5% in 2019

Turkey's foreign trade gap in 2019 dropped 43.5% to stand at $31.17 billion, down from $55.12 billion in 2018, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.

TurkStat reported that during 2019 the country's exports rose 2.1% to reach $171.5 billion while imports fell 9.1% to stand at $202.7 billion.

Turkey's export/import coverage ratio reached 84.6% last year, up from 75.3% in 2018, the institute said.

In December, Turkey made exports of $14.7 billion, up 6.4% on a yearly basis, while the country's imports rose 14.9% to reach $19.2 billion.

The foreign trade deficit in December was $4.3 billion, up 57.6% versus the same month in the previous year.

"In December 2019, the exports coverage imports was 77.3% while it was 83.4% in December 2018," it added.

On the other hand, according to the general trade system, in 2019, exports were $180.72 billion, up 2.2%, and imports were $210.26 billion, down 9.1% from 2018.

Foreign trade statistics are calculated using two different systems, the special and the general trade systems.

The general trade system is a wider concept, including customs warehouses, all types of free zones, free circulation areas, and premises for inward processing.

EU remains top trading partner

In 2019, Germany remained the main partner for Turkey's exports with $15.3 billion, followed by the U.K. ($10.8 billion), Italy ($9.3 billion), Iraq ($8.99 billion), and the U.S. ($8.58 billion).

Turkey's exports to EU, its main trading partner with a share of 48.5%, last year dropped 0.9% year-on-year to total $83.2 billion.

The country's imports from EU were $69.37 billion, down 34.2% year-on-year in 2019. Turkey posted a trade surplus of over $13.8 billion with EU in the year.

In the year, exports to Asian and African countries, the other largest export markets for Turkish products, were $44.4 billion and $15.88 billion, respectively.

Russia was the top country for Turkey's imports last year with almost $22.45 billion, followed by China with $18.5 billion, Germany with $17.97 billion, and the U.S. with $11.18 billion.

Manufacturing exports reach $161.5B

The data showed that manufacturing took the lion's share of overall exports, at 94.2% or $161.5 billion.

Agriculture and forestry exports ($5.5 billion) had a 3.2% share, while mining and quarrying exports ($3.2 billion) got a share of 1.9%.

The share of high-tech products in manufacturing industry exports was 3.5%, while the shares of medium-high and medium-low technology products were 36% and 27.5%, respectively.

On the imports side, the share of high-tech products in 2019 was 15.3%.