Turkey's foreign trade deficit narrows in March

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign trade deficit narrowed by 10.3 percent year-on-year in March, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Friday.

"In March 2017 foreign trade deficit was $4.492 billion with a 10.3 percent decrease compared with March 2016," the institute said.

The month saw exports hiked by 13.6 percent to approximately $14.5 billion, TurkStat reported.

Turkey's total imports also rose by 6.9 percent to almost $19 billion compared to the same period of 2016, it said.

The report further revealed that Turkey's exports to the EU advanced by 8.1 percent to reach $6.3 billion in February 2017 compared to last year.

"The proportion of the EU countries was 46.7 percent in March 2017 while it was 49.1 percent in March 2016," it added.

The main country for exports was Germany with trade reaching some more than $1.3 billion in last month. Germany was followed by the United Arab Emirates with $1.28 billion, Iraq with $906 million and the U.K. with $874 million.

In the same period, Turkey imported most from Germany -- $1.8 billion (9.4 percent). China and Russia became Turkey’s second and third import partners, worth $1.77 billion and $1.6 billion, respectively.