UPDATE - Turkey's foreign trade deficit falls 55.6% in April

UPDATES WITH DETAILS; ADDS CUMULATIVE FIGURES FOR JAN-APRIL PERIOD

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign trade deficit in April fell 55.6% year-on-year, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.

TurkStat said the foreign trade deficit in April totaled $2.98 billion, improving from a $6.71-billion deficit a year ago.

Last month, Turkey's exports hit $14.48 billion -- up 4.6% on a yearly basis -- and imports dropped to $17.46 billion with an annual decline of 15.1%.

"In April 2019, exports coverage imports was 82.9% while it was 67.4% in April 2018," TurkStat said.

Germany was Turkey's top exports market at $1.24 billion last month, followed by the U.K. ($819 million), Italy ($777 million) and Iraq ($754 million).

In April, Russia was the number one source for Turkey's imports, amounting to $1.86 billion.

"The country was followed by China with $1.45 billion, Germany with $1.45 billion and the U.S. with $925 million," the institute said.

- January-April period

Turkey's exports were $56.7 billion in the four-month period, marking an annual rise of 3.1%.

Imports amounted to nearly $66.5 billion, going down 19.1% on a yearly basis.

Official figures showed that the country's foreign trade balance was in a deficit of $9.77 billion over the same period, falling 64.4% on a yearly basis.

The EU was the country's top trade partner, as exports to the 28-member bloc were around $28.2 billion -- 49.7% of all exports -- and imports from the EU were some $22.1 billion.

Turkey made the next most exports to Near and Middle Eastern countries with $10.6 billion-worth of products, followed by African countries with nearly $5.3 billion.

On the imports side, the EU was followed by Asian countries with $20.7 billion.

Over the past five years, the highest export-to-import ratio on a yearly basis was recorded last year with 75.3%, while Turkey's foreign trade deficit has fallen from $84.5 billion in 2014 to $55.1 billion in 2018.