Turkey’s exports fell by 0.9 percent and imports fell by 4.2 percent in 2016 compared with last year, while the foreign trade deficit fell by 11.7 percent helped by low oil prices.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) published the foreign trade statistics for December 2016 last week. Accordingly, exports and imports for the month increased by 9 and 2.3 percent.
The proportion of Exports to imports increased to 69.6 percent, from 65.3 percent in December 2015. Seasonally and calendar adjusted exports decreased by 0.5 percent while imports increased by 6.1 percent compared with the previous month. Calendar adjusted exports and imports increased by 9.1 percent and 5.4 percent compared with the same month last year.
In December 2016, the main recipient of exports was Germany with $1.19 billion, followed by Iraq with $795 million, the U.K. with $768 million and the United Arab Emirates with $759 million.
Turkey’s imports came mainly from China with $1.86 billion, followed by Germany with $1.81 billion, Russia with $1.35 billion and Italy with $902 million.