Turkey's current account deficit widens: Central Bank

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s current account deficit has widened, standing at $1.78 billion in August, up almost by $2 billion year-on-year, due to a decline in income from tourism and imports, the Central Bank said in a report Wednesday.

The 12-month rolling deficit rose to $31.02 billion, up from $29 billion in July of the year, according to the report.

The fall in services surplus due to slipping tourism revenue despite a foreign trade deficit decline of $170 million from a year earlier was listed as the main reason for the increase in current account deficit, the bank said.

Despite the decline in total current account deficit in the first eight months compared to the same period of 2015, especially due to tourism, we see a figure higher than forecasts for the month and the figure for the same month last year, Enver Erkan , an analyst from Kapital FX, said.

Turkey's revenues from tourism fell to $5 billion in the second quarter of the year, a decrease of 35.6 percent from the same period in the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute said on July 29.

Erkan added the positive contribution of low oil prices also started to disappear as oil prices recover.