According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in December last year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased by 57.6 percent to $4.32 billion compared to December 2018. In 2019, Turkey's foreign trade deficit fell by 43.5 percent year on year to $31.17 billion.
In December, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked fourth among the country's products with the highest export value, $757.96 million, decreasing by 30.4 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eighth among the products with the highest export value, increased by 10.9 percent year on year, amounting to $591.24 million.
In 2019, Turkey's iron and steel export value was down by 13.9 percent to $9.94 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel declined by 0.7 percent to $6.48 billion, both year on year.