Türkiye's foreign trade gap shrinks to $105.9B in 2023

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) — Türkiye's foreign trade deficit went down 3.2% to $105.99 billion in 2023, decreasing from $109.5 billion in 2022, official figures showed on Wednesday.

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed that the country's exports rose by 0.6% to $255.77 billion, while its imports dropped 0.5% to $361.77 billion last year.

The main destination for Turkish exports was Germany with $21.09 billion, while Russia was the biggest source of imports with $45.6 billion.

The share of manufacturing industries products in overall exports was 94.2% last year.

The share of high tech in manufacturing industries products was up by 23.1% to 3.8% and that of medium high tech rose by 8.4% to 36.5% in 2023 versus 2022.

In December alone, exports increased 0.4% to $23 billion, while imports fell by 11% $29 billion. The trade deficit amounted to $6 billion, down by 37.8% on a yearly basis.