Gökhan Ergöçün
31 August 2020•Update: 31 August 2020
ISTANBUL
Turkey's exports in July dropped 5.8% to $15 billion, while imports fell 7.9% to $17.7 billion on an annual basis, official data showed on Monday.
The country's trade balance posted $2.7 billion deficit in July, according to the figures by Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). The gap was $3.3 billion in the same month last year.
The export-to-import coverage ratio was 84.8% this July versus 82.9% in July 2019.
The share of manufacturing sector in total exports stood at 95.1% last month, while agriculture, forestry and fishing's share was 2.8%, and mining and quarrying's share was 1.6%.
High-tech products' share was 2.9% of manufacturing industries exports and 12.3% of imports last month.
TurkStat data showed that intermediate goods took the largest share, with 72.3% of overall imports, followed by capital goods with 15.3% and consumption goods 12.2%.
Turkey’s exports to its top trading partner Germany totaled $1.5 billion. It was followed by the UK with $973 million, the US with $952, Iraq with $743 million and France with $704 million.
"The ratio of the first five countries in total exports was 32.2% in July 2020," TurkStat added.
Meanwhile, China was the main source of Turkey's imports last month with $1.9 billion, followed by Germany ($1.8 billion), Russia ($1.2 billion), the US ($970 million), and Iraq ($962 million).
In the January-July period, Turkey's exports were $90 billion, dropping 13.7% year-on-year, while imports were $116.6 billion, down 3.9%.
The trade deficit was $26.6 billion in the first seven months, the export-to-import coverage ratio was 77.2%.
