According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in August this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased by 59 percent to $2.42 billion compared to August 2017. In the January-August period of this year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 7.6 percent year on year to $49.19 billion.
In August, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked fourth among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $848.7 million, increasing by 52.7 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 1.2 percent year on year, amounting to $485.51 million.
In the January-August period of this year, Turkey's iron and steel export value increased by 31.2 percent to $7.05 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 15.5 percent to $4.15 billion, both year on year.