UPDATE - Turkey: Foreign trade deficit narrows 90 pct in Nov.

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign trade deficit in November narrowed by 90 percent year-on-year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported on Monday.

The foreign trade gap in November totaled $651 million, down from $6.4 billion in the same month last year.

Turkey's exports rose 9.4 percent to reach over $15.5 billion, while imports decreased 21.3 percent to $16.2 billion during the same period.

Thus, the exports-to-imports coverage ratio surged to 96 percent last month, up from 69 percent in November 2017.

TurkStat showed that Turkey's exports to its main trading partner EU increased 11 percent on a yearly basis, totaled $7.7 billion in November.

Germany was the main recipient of Turkish exports, reaching some $1.4 billion last month. It was followed by the U.K. with $983 million, Italy with $851 million and Iraq with $855 million.

Turkish imports mostly came from Russia with almost $1.8 billion in November. Imports from Germany amounted to $1.6 billion, from China $1.4 billion and from the U.S. $1.1 billion.

- Exports rose by 7.7 pct in first 11 months of 2018

From January to November, Turkey's exports climbed by 7.7 percent to reach $154.2 billion and imports slipped to $206.5 billion, down 2 percent, compared to same month in 2017.

Foreign trade deficit shrank to $52.3 billion in the first eleven months of this year, marking a 22.6 percent year-on-year decrease.

Exports coverage imports rose to 74.7 percent from 67.9 percent in the same period last year.

Turkey's exports to the EU-28 advanced by 15 percent annually to $77.5 billion in January-November period.

The proportion of the EU in Turkey's exports was 50.3 percent while it was 47.1 percent in the same month last year.

Asian countries with a share of 24.8 percent or some $38.2 billion worth of exports and African countries with around $13 billion were the other largest export markets for Turkish products.

In the eleven-month period, manufacturing constituted the most of Turkish exports, with a share of 94 percent and a value worth $144.9 billion.

Agriculture and forestry exports (nearly $5 billion) got a 3.2 percent share and mining and quarrying exports had a 2 percent share, i.e. 3.1 billion.

The share of medium-high technology products in exports of manufacturing industries stood at 36.3 percent, followed by low technology industries (32.7 percent) and medium-low technologies (27.6 percent).