ANKARA: Turkey’s foreign trade deficit declined 13.4 percent year-on-year in January, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported on Monday. In January, the deficit fell to $3.76 billion, down from $4.34 billion from same month last year, plummeting 13.4 percent.
Exports amounted to $9.6 billion, a 22 percent decrease from January 2015, and imports were $13.4 billion, an 19.7 percent decline year-on-year.
Turkey’s exports to the EU, its main trading partner, declined by 9.7 percent in January to $4.75 billion. The European Union accounted for 49.5 percent of total Turkish exports in January compared with 42.7 percent in January 2015.
The huge slump in the price of oil gave the country its smallest trade deficit last year ($63.3 billion) since 2009. The energy bill stood at $37.8 billion, down from $54.9 billion in 2014.