The country's foreign trade deficit narrowed by $1.1 billion to $5.7 billion year-on-year in October, Turkey's trade minister said.
Turkey's exports reached $23.6 billion in October, marking a historic high for the month, Omer Bolat was quoted by TRT as saying.
Speaking at an event organized by the Assembly of Turkish Exporters (ATI) in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya, Bolat stressed that the country's exports rose by 3.6 percent compared to October last year.
"In 10 of the last 15 months, Turkey has broken export records," Bolat noted, highlighting the steady growth in trade.
At the same time, the country's imports decreased slightly by 0.1 percent to $29.36 billion in October, he said.
As a result, Turkey's foreign trade deficit dropped by $1.1 billion, narrowing to $5.7 billion compared to the same month of the previous year.
For the January-October period, Turkey's exports amounted to $216.4 billion, up 3.2 percent compared to the previous year, Bolat said.
During the same period, imports fell 7.2 percent to $282 billion, which contributed to a 30.4 percent reduction in the trade deficit, which fell to $65.6 billion.
Bolat also noted an improvement in the export-to-import coverage ratio, which rose 7.7 percentage points to 76.7 percent in the first 10 months of the year.
In terms of the 12-month period from October 2023 to October 2024, Turkey's rolling exports reached $262.3 billion, marking a 3.1 percent annual increase and setting another all-time high.
For the same period, imports amounted to $340 billion, a decrease of $27 billion or 7.4%. This led to a 32% reduction in the foreign trade deficit, from $112.8 billion to $77.7 billion, Bolat added. | BGNES
