Turkey's foreign trade deficit narrows in June

ANKARA Turkey's foreign trade deficit has narrowed in June year-on-year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said Monday. "In June 2017, foreign trade deficit was 6.01 billion dollars with a 9.1 percent decrease compared with June 2016," TurkStat stated. The new data showed that Turkey's exports rose by 2.3 percent year-on-year to reach $13.17 billion in June compared to same period of last year. In June, Turkey's total imports fell by 1.5 percent year-a-year down to $19.18 billion in June. During the first half of the year, the country's foreign trade deficit reached $30.8 billion, marking a 10 percent increase compared to the previous year, TurkStat added. The country's exports advanced by 8.2 percent to $77.5 billion while imports increased 8.7 percent to $108.3 billion in the 2017 January-June period. TurkStat’s report revealed that manufacturing constituted the majority of June exports, with a 94.6 percent share and a value worth $12.5 billion. Agriculture and forestry -- 2.8 percent -- and mining and quarrying with 2 percent followed. With a 72 percent share worth $14 billion, intermediate goods made up the most of Turkish imports. The capital goods sector, with a $2.6 billion value -- 13.6 percent -- and the consumption goods sector, with a 13.2 percent share, followed. TurkStat showed that Turkey's exports to the EU remained flat at $6.25 billion in June 2017 compared to last year. Germany was the main recipient of Turkish exports with trade reaching some $1.3 billion in June. The United Arab Emirates with $896 million, the U.S. with $886 million and the U.K. with $808 million followed. Turkish imports -- worth $1.9 billion -- mostly came from China. Imports from Germany amounted to $1.6 billion, from Russia $1.4 billion and from the U.S. $1.06 billion.