October 01, 2018•Update: October 01, 2018
ANKARA
Turkey's foreign trade deficit in September dropped 77 percent year-on-year, according to preliminary Trade Ministry data released Monday.
Turkey posted a foreign trade gap of $1.9 billion for the month.
At a meeting in the capital Ankara, Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said the country's exports volume surged by 22.6 percent on a yearly basis to reach its highest-ever September export figure, $14.5 billion.
She noted that 12-month rolling export volume also reached to a new peak of $165.1 billion.
"Hopefully, we will hit our export volume target for this year, which we upgraded to $170 billion," Pekcan said.
The foreign trade volume dropped to $30.8 billion during the month, falling 3 percent.
In September Turkey's imports fell 18.1 percent annually to $16.4 billion, she added.
"Thus, the exports-to-imports coverage ratio reached 88.4 percent, the highest level in nine years," Pekcan said.
The exports-to-imports coverage ratio was 59 percent in the same month last year.
Reporting by Merve Ozlem Cakir and Erdal Celikel:Writing by Tuba Sahin
