ANKARA: A jump in gold exports and lower energy imports helped push Turkey’s trade deficit down by almost a third in April, although it still came in slightly above expectations in a Reuters poll, Turkish Statistic Institute (TurkStat) data showed on Friday.
The deficit dropped 31.9 percent year-on-year to $4.97 billion last month, the data showed, above a Reuters poll forecast of $4.77 billion. The decrease comes following a 17.4 increase in the deficit year-on-year in March.
April exports were up by 0.2 percent to $13.39 billion while imports were down by 11.1 percent to $18.36 billion. The deficit in the first four months of the year was $20.19 billion.
Gold bullion exports jumped to $1.428 billion in the month, $1.1 billion of which were to Switzerland. In April 2014, bullion exports were $51 million, according to official data. Imports of oil and oil products fell to $829 million in April, from $1.249 billion a year ago. Turkey heavily depends on energy imports from its neighbors due to a lack of its own resources. The country imports most of its natural gas and oil from Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.
Turkish markets were unfazed by the data. The lira was at 2.6655 to the dollar, little changed from late on Thursday. The main İstanbul stock index was down by 0.06 percent to 83,517.06 points by 0804 GMT.
The benchmark 10-year government bond yield was at 9.88 percent versus 9.22 at the close on Thursday.
Turkey’s top export partners in April were Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Iraq, while the top importers to Turkey were China, Germany, Russia and the United States. Exports to the European Union fell 10.4 percent compared with April 2014, dropping from $5.9 billion to $5.284 billion. Both imports and exports of high-tech products increased during April.
Experts have called for the country to focus on strengthening its manufacturing sector, enabling it to increase its dependence on imports of foreign goods and further diversify its export market.
