By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Ministry of Trade on Monday announced the survey results of foreign trade expectations for the last quarter of this year.
In a statement, the ministry said that foreign trade expectation survey reflects assessments of Turkish foreign trade depending on recent and current situations along with future expectations of leading firms.
"The survey helps to produce indices which can be stated as leading indicators," it said.
The ministry said the export expectation index fell 2.7 points year-on-year to 108.9 points for the October-December period this year, down from 111.6 points a year ago.
The import expectation index also dropped 3.6 points to 96.5 for the fourth quarter of this year, versus 100.1 points over the same period last year.
Both indices with value over 100 points indicate a rising expectation, while the value below 100 points shows a downward outlook for the coming periods.
On a quarterly basis, export expectation index decreased by 14.4 points from 123.3 points in the July-September period this year, as the import expectation index declined slightly -- down from 98.1 points in the third quarter of this year.
According to the country's statistical authority's latest figures, Turkey's exports totaled nearly $111.4 billion and imports were some $132 billion in the January-August period this year.
In 2018, Turkey's exports hit an all-time high of $167.9 billion while the figure was nearly $157 billion in the previous year.
Over the last decade, the highest annual export-to-import ratio was recorded last year with 75.3%, while Turkey's foreign trade deficit has fallen from some $106 billion in 2011 to $55 billion in 2018.