UPDATE - Turkey's foreign trade deficit falls 93.8 pct in Oct.

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

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's foreign trade deficit in October fell 93.8 percent year-on-year, the country's statistical authority announced on Friday.

The country's foreign trade deficit in October totaled $456 million, improving from $7.3 billion deficit a year ago, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Last month, Turkey's exports hit $15.72 billion -- up 13 percent on a yearly basis --, as imports dropped to $16.17 billion with an annual decline of 23.8 percent.

"In October 2018, exports coverage imports was 97.2 percent, while it was 65.6 percent in October 2017," TurkStat said.

Turkey's top partner for exports was Germany with $1.46 billion last month, followed by the U.K. ($1.07 billion), Italy ($877 million) and Iraq with $852 million.

"In October 2018, the top country for Turkey's imports was Russia with $1.86 billion.

"The country was followed by Germany with $1.56 billion, China with $1.37 billion and the U.S. with $883 million," the institute said.

- January-October period

Turkey's exports amounted to $138.7 billion in the 10-month period, marking an annual hike of 7.6 percent.

Imports totaled $190.3 billion -- almost no change compared with $190.2 billion in January-October period last year.

Consequently, the country's foreign trade balance showed a deficit of $51.6 billion in the 10-month period, falling 15.7 percent on a yearly basis.

The EU was the top trade partner of Turkey, as exports to the EU were $69.8 billion -- 50.3 percent of all exports -- and imports from the EU were $69.1 billion.

Near and Middle Eastern countries with some $27.3 billion and African countries with around $11.6 billion were the other largest export markets for Turkish products.

On the imports side, the EU was followed by Asian countries with nearly $60.2 billion.

Over the past five years, the highest export-to-import ratio on a yearly basis was recorded in 2016 with 71.8 percent, while Turkey's foreign trade deficit has fallen from $99.8 billion in 2013 to $76.8 billion in 2017.