Turkey’s trade deficit soars in May as gold imports rise

Turkey’s trade deficit increased by 18.8 percent year-on-year, to $12.66 billion in May, and rose nearly 30 percent in the first five months of the year, according to data published by the Turkish Ministry of Trade on Friday.

The ministry added that exports rose by 14.4 percent to $21.65 billion in May, while imports also rose by 16 percent to $34.31 billion.

Turkey’s energy imports fell 23.6 percent year-on-year to $5.3 billion in the same period, and gold imports rose 114.1 percent year-on-year to $3 billion in May, as Turks sought the yellow metal to preserve value with the lira’s decline.

And gold imports, which contributed to the trade deficit last year, have been witnessing a continuous decline since January, due to the restrictions imposed on them, and although imports in May were twice their value in April, their value remained below $ 5.1 billion, which it reached in January from current year.

The data also showed that the trade deficit amounted to 56.1 billion dollars in the first five months of the year, an increase of 29.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Exports increased in the same period by 0.2 percent to $102.52 billion, while imports rose 8.9 percent to $158.63 billion.

During the current week, a Reuters report, quoting sources, showed that the total reserves of the Turkish Central Bank decreased by three billion dollars, to reach about $98.5 billion, in the week ending on May 26, which shows a further decline, in light of the sharp increase faced by the authorities in demand for foreign exchange.

The bankers added that it is also expected that the net foreign exchange reserves of the central bank would have declined by more than two billion dollars in the same week, to fall further in the negative area to a level of negative 2.5 billion dollars.

The net foreign exchange reserves of the central bank fell to negative territory on May 25 for the first time since 2002.