Türkiye's trade gap amounts to $34.7B in Q1

By Tuba Ongun

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye's trade deficit grew 30.7% year-on-year to $34.7 billion in the first quarter of 2023, according to official data released on Friday.

The country's exports increased 2.5% from a year ago to $61.6 billion in January-March, while imports jumped 11.1% to $96.3 billion, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio fell to 64% in the three-month period, versus 69.4% last year.

Türkiye's main trading partner Germany received $5.5 billion worth of Turkish exports in the first quarter of this year, followed by the US with $3.7 billion, Italy $3.2 billion, Russia $3.1 billion, and the UK $1.9 million.

On the other side of the ledger, the top country for Türkiye's imports in January-March was Russia with $13.1 billion, followed by China with $10.4 billion, Switzerland with $9.2 billion, Germany with $6.6 billion and the US with $3.7 billion.

- Monthly data

In March, Türkiye's outbound shipments grew 4.4% annually to $23.6 billion, while its imports climbed 3.4% to $31.9 billion.

Türkiye's foreign trade deficit edged up 0.9% from last year to $8.34 billion in March.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye saw a foreign trade deficit of $21.2 billion last month.