ANKARA: Gold exports increased nearly six-fold to $1.3 billion, data by Turkey’s state statistics institute in Ankara showed. The gap shrank 38 percent from a year ago in January to $4.31 billion, beating the median forecast of $4.6 billion in a Bloomberg survey of seven analysts.
The surge in gold sales limited the annual drop in exports to 0.6 percent while imports fell by 13.7 percent to $16.6 billion. Switzerland was the top destination for exports of the precious metal, accounting for sales worth $982 million.
Turkey has in the past seen occasional spikes in the metal’s exports and the January jump in shipments will prove to be a temporary phenomenon, according to Deniz Cicek, an economist at Finansbank in Istanbul.
“Gold lies behind the pleasant surprise in January,” Oyak Bank chief economist Mehmet Besimoglu said by phone. “Exports would have fallen significantly if it wasn’t for gold.”
