By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's Ministry of Trade announced Monday the survey results of foreign trade expectations for the last quarter of this year.
“Foreign trade expectation survey reflects assessments of Turkish foreign trade depending on recent and current situations along with future expectations of leading firms, ” the ministry said in a statement.
It noted that the survey helps to produce indices which can be stated as leading indicators.
According to the ministry, export expectation index fell by 6.4 points to 111.6 in the fourth quarter of 2018, down from 118 in July-September period this year.
The index value was 123.7 points in the October-December period in 2017.
On the imports side, the expectation index decreased by 13 points to 100.1 in the last quarter of 2018, versus 113.1 points in the third quarter of this year.
Survey results showed that the import expectation index stood at 112.8 points in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Both indices with value over 100 points indicate a rising expectation, while the value below 100 points shows a downward outlook for the coming periods.
According to the country's statistical authority, foreign trade deficit saw an annual fall of 59 percent in August, falling to $2.4 billion compared with $5.9 billion in the same month last year.
As of August, Turkey's eight-month exports totaled $108.6 billion and imports amounted to $157.8 billion.
In 2014, Turkey's exports hit an all-time high of $157.6 billion while the figure was nearly $157 billion last year.
Over the past five years, the highest export-to-import ratio on a yearly basis was recorded in 2016 with 71.8 percent, while Turkey's foreign trade deficit has fallen from $99.8 billion in 2013 to $76.8 billion in 2017.
