Turkey's foreign trade deficit widens in May

By Dilara Zengin

ANKARA

Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose 43.4 percent in May against the same month in 2016, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Friday.

The monthly deficit was $7.3 billion as imports increased by 21.7 percent year-on-year to $20.9 billion while exports went up 12.5 percent to $13.6 billion.

In the first five months, exports rose 9.5 percent to $64.3 billion whereas imports rose 11.2 percent to $89.1 billion compared to the same period last year, TurkStat said.

The deficit during January-May was $24.8 billion, a 15.7 percent increase on the same period in 2016.

Exports to the EU increased by 4.4 percent to $6.13 billion in May, up from $5.8 billion in May 2016.

Germany was Turkey's largest export market with $1.24 billion in May, followed by the United Arab Emirates with $1.04 billion, U.S. with $858 million and Iraq with $831 million.

Most imports came from China ($1.93 billion) followed by Germany ($1.82 billion), Russia ($1.45 billion) and U.S. ($1.16 billion).