According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in June this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased by 9.1 percent to $5.49 billion compared to June 2017. In the January-June period of this year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 31.6 percent year on year to $40.73 billion.
In June, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked third among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $875.77 million, increasing by 37.9 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked sixth among the products with the highest export value, increased by 10.2 percent year on year, amounting to $507.52 million.
In the first half of this year, Turkey's iron and steel export value increased by 22.8 percent to $5.26 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 16.8 percent to $3.12 billion, both year on year.