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 decreased by 10.3 percent to $5.59 billion compared to December 2015. In 2016, Turkey's foreign trade deficit declined by 11.7 percent year on year to $55.9 billion.
In December, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked sixth among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $677.7 million, increasing by 37.2 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked ninth among the products with the highest export value, decreased by 3.1 percent year on year, amounting to $422.4 million.
In 2016, Turkey's iron and steel export value decreased by 5.6 percent to $6.18 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel declined by 9.1 percent to $4.96 billion, both year on year.