According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in April this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit increased by 35.6 percent to $6.68 billion compared to April 2017. In the first four months of this year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 56.2 percent year on year to $27.4 billion.
In April, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked third among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $820.5 million, increasing by 12.3 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked eight among the products with the highest export value, increased by 19.8 percent year on year, amounting to $529.35 million.
In the January-April period of this year, Turkey's iron and steel export value increased by 19.4 percent to $3.5 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 19.2 percent to $2.07 billion, both year on year.