Turkey’s foreign trade deficit at 4.69 billion USD in March

According to the leading March foreign trade data announced by the Ministry of Trade within the scope of GTS (general trade system); Compared to the same month of the previous year, exports increased by 42.18% to 18.99 billion USD, while imports increased by 25.8% in the same period to 23.68 billion USD. In this context, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 14.17% in the March period to 4.69 billion USD.

In March, the country to which we export the most was Germany, followed by the USA, England and Italy. In import items; China took the first place in March 2021, followed by Russia, Germany and Italy. Looking at the goods groups, there were strong double-digit increases in exports of all investment, raw materials and consumer goods in March. It is seen that imports increased by double digits in all categories (investment, consumption, raw materials).

It was seen that the strong increase effect in exports continued in March, along with the recovery in global economies and improved external demand conditions. From this point of view, when we compare the data of other months in terms of net export effect, it is understood that there will be a positive effect on growth. Especially, the recovery of economic activity in the Euro Area is important for our export outlook. However, let's not go without mentioning that the tightening measures and decreasing activity due to the increasing Covid cases in the recent period pose a risk in terms of export of goods.

On the import side; Strong increases are observed in all of the consumption, intermediate goods and capital goods items. The increase in consumption goods imports is not positive in terms of current account deficit; however, tightening financial conditions may pull this item down a little. On the intermediate goods and capital goods side, the increase in these items can be approached more positively, as imports turned into production and exports. However, increasing exchange rates and commodity prices increase our bill, especially on the energy and raw material imports. A positive detail we see in the March 2021 data on import sections is that gold imports do not take the lead. The most imported sections include mineral fuels, machinery and equipment, iron and steel and vehicles.

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