ANKARA
Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased for the first time this year after decreasing for seven months in a row, figures released by Turkish Statistical Institute Tuesday show.
August’s deficit increased to $8.03 billion this year from $7.08 billion in the same month last year, an increase of 13.5 percent, the Turkish Statistical Institute reported.
Turkey’s foreign trade fell in the first seven months of this year. The downward trend started in January and gained momentum after the Central Bank of Turkey introduced drastic interest rate rises in response to the US dollar’s rise against the Turkish lira mid-January.
Turkey's Banking Authority imposed new measures to restrict private consumption, especially for electronic items such as mobile phones and jewelry to ease the current account deficit.
The institute valued August's exports at $11.4 billion, a 2.9 percent increase on August, and imports stood at $19.4 billion, a 7 percent decrease.
The country’s exports to the European Union rose by 10 percent to $5.06 billion in August compared with $4.60 billion in the same month of 2013.
Germany, EU's largest economy and Turkey’s main export market, is worth $1.13 billion while imports from China – the world’s largest exporter, stood at $2.2 billion.
According to the Turkish Exporters' Assembly, exports to neighboring Iraq fell by 26.9 percent in August due to the recent turmoil in the country.
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