UPDATE - Turkey's current account gap falls in April

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's current account gap fell by 76% in April this year, the country's Central Bank announced on Friday.

In April, the current account balance posted a $1.3 billion deficit, improving from a $5.6 billion deficit in the same month last year.

Official figures also revealed that the country's 12-month rolling deficit amounted to $8.6 billion.

"This development in the current account is mainly attributable to $3.65 billion decrease in the goods deficit recording net outflow of $1.84 billion,” the Central Bank said.

It also attributed the fall to $263 million decrease in primary income deficit to $1.24 billion as well as $401 million increase in services surplus to $1.73 billion.

It noted that gold and energy excluded current account indicated $2.34 billion surplus, in contrast to $1.58 billion deficit a year ago.

Travel item under services recorded a net inflow of $1.15 billion in April, increasing by $144 million year-on-year, the Central Bank added.

Last year, the current account balance posted a deficit of around $27.6 billion, improving from a nearly $47.5 billion deficit in 2017.

The figure was the lowest since 2009, while Turkey’s highest annual current account deficit over the last decade was seen in 2011, with $74.4 billion.

The country's new economic program, announced last September, targets a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 3.3% this year.