Exports down 20% in January-May

TURKISH exports reached $61.6 billion (TL 422 billion) in January-May, down 20% year-on-year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s statistical authority said yesterday.

Imports also posted a decline of 5.2% to $82.6 billion, resulting in foreign trade gap to double. It hit $21 billion in the first five months of this year.

Turkey’s exports were nearly $10 billion in May, falling 41% from the same month last year while imports also slipped 28% to $13.4 billion.

As exports decreased sharper than imports, the foreign trade deficit rose 102.7% year-onyear hitting $3.4 billion in May.

This May, the export-import coverage ratio was 74.5% versus 90.9% in May 2019.

TurkStat said the manufacturing sector’s share of exports was 93.8%, while agriculture, forestry and fishing’s share was 3.7%, and mining and quarrying’s share was 1.9%.

The institute added that the share of high-tech products was 3.8% of manufacturing industries exports and 12.3% of imports.

Intermediate goods took the lion’s share, with 76.7% of overall exports, followed by capital goods (14.5%) and consumption goods (8.4%).

In May, Germany remained Turkey’s top export destination, with exports totaling $919 million. It was followed by the U.S. with $882 million, Iraq with $603 million, the U.K. with $560 million and France with $416 million.

“The ratio of the first five countries in total exports was 33.9% in May 2020,” TurkStat added.

China was the main source of Turkey’s imports last month with $1.9 billion, followed by Germany ($1.2 billion), Russia ($1.17 billion), the U.S. ($764 million) and Italy ($483 million).