UPDATE WITH COMMENTS FROM ECONOMISTS, ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
By Tuba Sahin
ANKARA (AA) – Turkey ran a current account deficit of $7.7 billion in December 2017, according to the Turkish Central Bank on Wednesday.
Data showed that annual deficit reached $47.1 billion in 2017.
“This development in the current account is mainly attributable to $3.2 million increase in the goods deficit, recording net outflow of $7.4 million, as well as $231 million increase in primary income deficit to $1.2 million, ” it said.
The median of analysts' forecasts surveyed by Anadolu Agency’s Finance Desk on Friday was $7.3 billion for the month, while the year-end overall current account forecast stood at $46.7 billion.
Travel, a major item under services, recorded a net inflow of $780 million, increasing by $80 million compared with the same month of the previous year, the bank added.
Turkey's current account gap in December 2016 was $4.36 billion with a 12-month rolling deficit of $33.1 billion, according to the Turkish Central Bank's revised data.
Muammer Komurcuoglu, economist at IS Investment, told Anadolu Agency the rise in the 12-month rolling deficit — nearly $14 billion — mainly was driven by energy and gold imports.
“This widening is related to energy and gold imports, which added $8.9B and $11.8B deficit, respectively, ” Komurcuoglu said.
Highlighting that core deficit [excluding gold and energy] shrinked by $6.7B he said: “It is good news to see a narrowing in core deficit in a high-growth year, ”
Komurcuoglu said strong external demand, especially from EU countries and recovery in tourism revenues would positively effect current account deficit to narrow in 2018.
“Putting all these, we expect a moderate narrowing in the year-end overall current account deficit to reach at $45B [5 of GDP] in 2018. ” he added.
