According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in May this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased by 102.7 percent to $3.42 billion compared to May 2019. In the January-May period of the current year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 102.8 percent year on year to $21.5 billion.
In May, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked fifth among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $561.52 million, falling by 44.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked seventh among the products with the highest export value, declined by 35.9 percent year on year, amounting to $392.58 million.
In the first five months of the year, Turkey's iron and steel export value was down by 28.3 percent to $3.36 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel decreased by 14.7 percent to $2.38 billion, both year on year.