Turkey's current account gap shrinks in June

Turkey’s current account balance posted $548 million deficit this June, the nation’s Central Bank said on Friday.

The bank’s latest balance of payments figures revealed that Turkey’s current account gap in June fell by nearly 82 percentage points year-on-year, improving from a nearly $3 billion deficit in the same month last year.

“This development in the current account is mainly attributable to a $1.82 billion decrease in the goods deficit recording net outflow of $2.60 billion, as well as $754 million increase in services surplus to $3.16 billion,” the Central Bank said.

It noted that gold and energy excluded current account indicated $2.28 billion surplus, in an increase of $1.69 billion compared to a year ago.

Travel item under services recorded a net inflow of $2.52 billion in June, increasing $646 million on a yearly basis, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey said.

Investment income under primary income indicated a net outflow of $1.06 billion increasing by $102 million compared to the same month last year, it added.

Last year, the current account balance posted a deficit of around $27.6 billion, improving from a nearly $47.5 billion deficit in 2017.

The figure was the lowest since 2009, while Turkey’s highest annual current account deficit over the last decade was seen in 2011, with $74.4 billion.

The country's new economic program, announced in September, is targeting a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.7 percent in 2018, 3.3 percent this year, 2.7 percent in 2020, and 2.6 percent in 2021.