UPDATE - Turkiye's foreign trade gap down 7.5% in 2021

UPDATE WITH MORE DETAILS

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Turkiye's foreign trade gap was down 7.5% to $46.13 billion in 2021, compared to the previous year, according to official figures released on Monday.

The country's exports rose to $225.3 billion in 2021 with an increase of 32.8%, while its imports increased by 23.6% to $271.4 billion, TurkStat said.

In the same period, exports' coverage of imports was 83%, while it was 77.3% in January-December 2020.

In December, the share of intermediate goods, capital goods, and consumption goods in total imports was 79.3%,13.1%, and 7.4%, respectively.

Excluding the energy and gold trade, Turkiye's exports and imports rose by 22.2% and 23.2% -- $20.9 billion and $21.6 billion -- respectively.

The foreign trade deficit -- excluding energy products and non-monetary gold -- was $671 million in December, TurkStat said.

In January-December, Germany was the main recipient of Turkish export, with $19.3 billion.

This was followed by US and UK with $14.7 billion and $13.7 billion, respectively.

China, on the other hand, was the top country from which Turkiye imported goods, with $32.2 billion, followed by Russia with $29 billion, Germany with $21.7 billion, and the US with $13.1 billion.

The ratio of manufacturing industry products in total exports was 94.5% last year, whereas the ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing industry exports was 3%.