Türkiye's foreign trade gap narrows by 57% in January

Türkiye's exports hit a record level for January with $20.03 billion, increasing by 3.6 percent yearly, the Turkish trade minister has announced.

Imports of the country dropped by 22 percent in January versus the same month last year to $26.2 billion, Omer Bolat announced in a news conference in Istanbul, on Friday.

The country's foreign trade gap narrowed by 57 percent in January year-on-year, he said.

The export-import coverage ratio improved by 18.9 percent to 76.4 percent in the first month of 2024, the minister stressed.

Türkiye's exports in 2023

Türkiye's exports in 2023 hit a record high of $255.8 billion, ticking up 0.6 percent from the previous year, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced.

"Thus, the figure surpassed our medium-term program's target of $255 billion," Erdogan told a news conference in Istanbul on the preliminary foreign trade data.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio gained 0.8 percentage points from the previous year to reach 70.7 percent in 2023, Erdogan said.

He stressed that the country's foreign trade deficit narrowed 3.2 percent year-on-year in 2023.

"Except July, our trade gap shrank annually in the last 7 months of 2023," he explained.

The president said Türkiye aims to boost its goods and services exports in 2024 to over $375 billion, adding: "Türkiye has more than enough power to achieve this target."