Turkey's foreign trade deficit narrows 58 pct in August

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey's foreign trade deficit in August fell 58 percent on a yearly basis, according to the trade ministry's preliminary data on Saturday.

Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said in a statement that the trade deficit of $2.48 billion last month was the lowest monthly figure in the last nine years.

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"In the same month, exports coverage ratio to imports reached 83.3 percent," Pekcan said. "It is also the highest level over the past nine years."

She added that Turkish exports amounted to $12.4 billion in August, with a yearly fall of 6.5 percent, while the country's imports declined by 22.4 percent to $14.8 billion.

Pekcan said the nine-day holiday for Eid al-Adha last month played a role in the 6.5 percent decrease in exports due to the loss of four working days.

"By compensating for the calendar effect, we will see that exports will show a rapid increase again in September," she added.

Pekcan said that official efforts to reduce the global trade wars' influence on Turkey's foreign trade are continuing.

"In the near future, we will start to get the results of studies we performed," the minister added.

"Despite the global protectionism trends in the world trade, we will steadily back employment and economic growth by achieving export targets."