Türkiye's trade deficit widens 12.9% in April

By Tuba Ongun

Türkiye's trade deficit widened 12.9% at an annualized pace to 9.7$ billion in April, according to official data released on Thursday.

Turkish exports rose slightly by 0.1% from a year earlier to $19.3 billion in April, while imports increased 4% to $29 billion, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye last month posted a foreign trade gap of $5.1 billion in April.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio dropped to 66.1% this April compared to 68.8% last year.

Türkiye's shipments to its main trading partner Germany totaled $1.5 billion in April, followed by the US with $1.19 billion, the UK with $1.17 billion, Iraq with $876 million and Italy with $861 million.

China was the top source of Türkiye's imports in April with $3.75 billion, followed by Russia ($3.32 billion), Germany ($2.24 billion), Italy ($1.98 billion) and the US ($1.33 billion).

- January-April figure

In the first four months of this year, Türkiye's overseas shipments grew by 2.7% from a year ago to $82.8 billion.

Its imports, on the other hand, fell 9% to $113.8 billion in the same period.

Türkiye's foreign trade deficit amounted to $30.2 billion in January-April, plunging by 30.5% from last year.