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 17.6 percent to $12.53 billion compared to May 2022. In the January-May period this year, Turkey’s foreign trade deficit rose by 29.3 percent year on year to $56.22 billion.
In May, Turkey’s iron and steel exports ranked ninth among the country’s products with the highest export value, totaling $746.98 million, decreasing by 45.2 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 7.9 percent year on year, amounting to $853.23 million.
In the first five months of this year, Turkey’s iron and steel export value was down by 50.8 percent to $3.43 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel fell by 2.9 percent to $4.12 billion, both year on year.