Turkey's trade deficit widens 5 pct in June

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey’s trade deficit widened by 5 percent in June, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Friday.

Rising imports saw the year-on-year increase push the deficit to $6.55 billion in June, up from $6.24 billion a year earlier.

The month saw exports rise by just over 8 percent to $12.9 billion while imports were also up, rising 7 percent to $19.5 billion, TurkStat reported.

In June, Turkey exported $1.22 billion worth of goods and services to Germany, followed by the U.K. ($1.1 billion) and Italy ($717 million). It imported $2.6 billion worth of goods and services from China and $2.3 billion worth from Germany.

In the first half of 2016 exports fell by 2.4 percent compared to the same period last year while imports dropped by 6.7 percent, resulting in a 16 percent reduction in the foreign trade gap to $28 billion.