By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey's foreign trade balance ran a $5.98 billion deficit in July, marking a year-on-year fall of 32.6 percent, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced on Wednesday.
Last month, the country's exports amounted to $14.07 billion with a 11.6 percent annual hike, while imports totaled $20.05 billion with a 6.7 percent decrease, compared with July 2017.
“In July 2018, exports coverage imports was 70.2 percent while it was 58.7 percent in July 2017, ” TurkStat said.
The institute noted that from January to July this year, exports were $96.27 billion — up 7 percent on a yearly basis — and imports were some $143 billion with an annual hike of 10.2 percent.
According to the official figures, the seven-month trade balance showed a deficit of $46.75 billion, up 10.2 percent over the same period last year.