International trade

BELGRADE - Serbia's external goods trade in January-May totalled approx. 27.86 bln euros, which is a 0.9 pct increase y-o-y, according to figures released by the national statistical office.

Goods exports were worth around 12.158 bln euros, rising by 0.6 pct y-o-y, while imports totalled around 15.7 bln euros, growing by 1.2 pct y-o-y.

Türkiye's foreign trade balance posted a deficit of $6.44 billion in June, widening 21.4 percent from a year ago, the Trade Ministry has said.

Exports fell 10.6 percent year-on-year to $18.6 billion, while the annual decline in imports was 4.1 percent to $25 billion.

The export/import coverage ratio deteriorated from 79.7 percent in June 2023 to 74.3 percent last month.

Five cities accounted for 56.3 percent of Türkiye's overall exports in May, according to data from the Trade Ministry.

Exports by companies based in Istanbul, the country's financial and commercial center, increased by 14 percent year-on-year last month to $5.64 billion, which corresponded to 23.4 percent of Türkiye's export revenues.

The Turkish defense and aviation industry's exports surge 8.6 percent in the January-May period from a year ago to reach $2.21 billion.

The industry's share in the country's overall export revenues was 2.1 percent.

Defense and aviation exports amounted to $876 million in May alone, said Haluk Görgün, the head of the Defense Industries Presidency (SSB).

Türkiye's exports increased by 11.4 percent in May from a year earlier to $24.07 billion, according to data from the Trade Ministry.

Imports plunged more than 10 percent annually to $30.6 billion, leading to a foreign trade deficit of $6.5 billion, down 47.8 percent from May last year.

This marked a record high May figure, said Trade Minister Ömer Bolat.

The trade balance of agri-food products was in surplus in three of the last four years (2020, 2021 and 2023), a positive development, but not sufficient to change the sign from negative to positive in the overall trade balance.

A monthly quota introduced in August last year on unprocessed gold imports is helping reduce the current account deficit, the Treasury and Finance Ministry has said.

Under the current regulation, there is a monthly quota of 12 tons of unprocessed gold imports.

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.

Türkiye's exports fell by 4.1 percent to $22.6 billion, while the annual decline in imports was 5.7 percent to $30.1 billion in March, data from the Trade Ministry has shown.

Consequently, the country's foreign trade deficit came in at $7.5 billion last month, shrinking by 10.3 percent from March 2023.

The Turkish food industry aims to increase its exports to the large Japanese market to $1 billion in the medium term.

Turkish companies attended the 50th edition of the International Food and Beverage Exhibition (Foodex) held between March 5 and 8 in the Japanese capital.