Turkey's Trade Gap Narrows By 8.4 Percent In September

The foreign trade deficit fell by 8.4 percent in September compared to the same month of the previous year to reach $6.93 billion, a report released by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) indicated on Friday.

The figure was $7.65 billion in September of last year.

According to the data, which was prepared by TurkStat with the cooperation of the Ministry of Customs and Trade, Turkish exports increased by 4.6 percent and reached $13.66 billion year-on-year in September, while imports registered a slight decrease -- 0.2 percent -- to reach $20.59 billion in the same period. The export-import coverage ratio rose to 66.4 percent in September from 63.3 percent last September.

Friday's data also revealed that seasonally and calendar adjusted exports had increased by 4.8 percent, while imports in September fell by 1 percent compared to the previous month. Considering the annual change in trade figures with calendar and seasonally adjusted data, exports increased by 1.4 percent in September and imports fell by 4.1 percent in the same period.

There was also an increase in exports to European Union countries as a proportion of all of Turkey's export partners. September's exports to the EU rose to 43.9 percent from 42.9 percent last September. EU-bound Turkish exports increased by 7.1 percent from $5.6 billion to $6.2 billion year-on-year.

The report by Turkstat also found that Turkey's leading export partner in September was Germany with $1.3 billion in exports, the UK with $921 million, Iraq with $911 million and the US with $602 million. Turkey's biggest purchases abroad meanwhile were from China at $2.3 billion, Russia at $2.25 billion, Germany at $1.86 billion and the US at $1.7 billion.

The ratio of manufacturing industry products as a proportion of total exports was recorded as 94 percent ????? IS THIS AND ALL THAT FOLLOWS REALLY A RATIO? I THOUGHT RATIOS WERE EXPRESSED AS 4:3 AND SUCH?. Of the total products exported by Turkey in the manufacturing sector, the ratio of high-technology products was 3.4 percent, while that of medium-high-technology was 32 percent in September, the data showed.

The ratio of manufacturing industry products as a proportion of total imports was 77.5 percent. While the ratio of high-technology products to total manufacturing products was 14 percent in September, the ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industry products was 41 percent.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)