Türkiye’s foreign trade gap widened 56% on an annual basis in March to $11.2 billion (TL 506.07 billion), as imports weighed over exports, official data showed Thursday.
Exports fell 6.4% to $21.9 billion compared with the same month last year, while imports rose 8.2% to $33.1 billion, according to figures from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the Ministry of Trade.
The export-to-import coverage ratio dropped to 66.1% in March from 76.5% a year earlier.
In the first quarter, exports decreased 3.2% year-on-year to $63.2 billion, while imports increased 4.7% to $91.9 billion.
The trade deficit widened 27.5% in the January-March period to $28.7 billion, with the coverage ratio falling to 68.8% from 74.4% in the same period last year.
Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, exports declined 5.5% in March to $20.3 billion, while imports rose 11.2% to $25.7 billion. The resulting deficit in this category stood at $5.4 billion, with total trade volume rising 3.2% to $46 billion.
Manufactured goods accounted for 93.7% of total exports, followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing at 3.7%, and mining and quarrying at 1.9%.
On the import side, intermediate goods made up 70% of total imports, while capital goods accounted for 14.6% and consumption goods for 14.9%.
Germany remained Türkiye’s largest export market in March, with shipments totaling $1.82 billion, followed by the United Kingdom ($1.42 billion), the U.S. ($1.38 billion), Italy ($1.22 billion) and France ($996 million).
China was the top source of imports at $4.76 billion, followed by Russia ($3.51 billion), Germany ($2.54 billion), Switzerland ($1.62 billion) and the U.S. ($1.52 billion).
