Turkish trade deficit widens in April as imports climb

ANKARA, May 30 (Xinhua) — Türkiye’s trade deficit widened by 12.9 percent year-on-year in April to 9.9 billion U.S. dollars, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) said on Thursday.

Exports edged up 0.1 percent to 19.25 billion dollars, while imports climbed 4.0 percent to 29.17 billion dollars, pushing the exports-to-imports ratio down to 66.1 percent, according to TUIK data.

China remained Türkiye’s top import source in April at 3.75 billion dollars, followed by Russia (3.32 billion dollars), Germany (2.24 billion dollars), Italy (1.98 billion dollars), and the United States (1.33 billion dollars). The five countries accounted for 43.4 percent of total imports.

Germany was the biggest export market for Türkiye in April with 1.48 billion dollars, followed by the United States which had 1.19 billion dollars.

Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek downplayed on Thursday the deficit increase, attributing it to “calendar effects.” In a post on social platform X, he said he expects both the trade and current account deficits to narrow in May, and forecasts a full-year current account deficit of around 2.5 percent of GDP, with potential temporary fluctuations.