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Turkey’s trade deficit widens as exports dip in April

By Pramod Kumar
Ma'aden's deal with PIF will allow it to invest in the iron ore, copper, nickel and lithium sectors Unsplash/Artyom Korshunov
Revenue fell 27 percent year on year to SAR29.27 billion in 2023 due to lower prices for all commodities except gold

Turkey’s trade deficit widened to $8.7 billion in April 2023, a 42.1 percent surge year-on-year (YoY), Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.

Exports fell 17.1 percent YoY to $19.3 billion, driven by a decline in mining, quarrying and manufacturing. Imports slipped 4.8 percent YoY to $28.1 billion, Daily Sabah newspaper reported.

The country revealed a foreign trade gap of $3.82 billion last month, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold.

TurkStat data showed a 36.3 percent YoY drop to $4.95 billion in the energy import bill, as energy accounted for 17.6 percent of the overall April import.

Crude oil imports fell 33.8 percent to 1.99 million tonnes from three million tonnes in April last year.

Germany topped Turkey’s leading export destination, reaching $1.59 billion last month, followed by the US ($1.16 billion), Iraq ($970 million), Italy ($954 million) and the UK ($945 million), the newspaper said.

The majority of imports came from Russia ($4.18 billion), China ($3.69 billion), Germany ($2.17 billion), Italy ($1.15 billion) and the US ($1.12 billion)

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