Foreign trade deficit widens in April: Trade Ministry

Türkiye's foreign trade deficit came in at $9.9 billion in April, pointing to a 13.3 percent increase from a year ago, preliminary numbers of the Trade Ministry showed on May 3.

The foreign trade gap shrank more than 12 percent year-on-year in March to $7.3 billion.

Last month, exports inched up 0.1 percent annually to $19.3 billion, while imports grew 4.2 percent to $29.2 billion.

The export/import coverage ratio was down 2.7 points from April 2022 to 66.1 percent.

The top three export markets were Germany ($1.48 billion), the U.S. ($1.19 billion) and the U.K. ($1.12 billion) in April, while shipment of goods to the European Union generated more than $8 billion in export revenues.

Türkiye's imports from China and Russia stood at $3.75 billion and $3.33 billion, respectively. Imports from Germany amounted to $2.24 billion.

Import of intermediate goods declined 0.9 percent in April to $20.27 billion. But consumer goods imports surged more than 34 percent to $4.8 billion and capital goods imports rose by 3.5 percent to $4 billion.

In the first four months of 2024, exports showed an annual increase of 2.7 percent, reaching $82.9 billion. As imports plunged 8.9 percent to $113 billion, the country's foreign trade deficit shrank 30.5 percent year-on-year to $30.2 billion.

The 12-month rolling exports and imports amounted to $257 billion and $351 billion, respectively, with the trade deficit declining nearly 23 percent to $93 billion.

The government forecasts that exports and imports will rise to $267 billion and $373 billion, respectively, in 2024. Its foreign trade deficit projection for this year is $105.8 billion.