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 5.7 percent to $7.75 billion compared to May 2017. In the first five months of this year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 41.4 percent year on year to $35.2 billion.
In May, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked third among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $899.2 million, increasing by 24.7 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 14.6 percent year on year, amounting to $543.25 million.
In the January-May period of this year, Turkey's iron and steel export value increased by 20.2 percent to $4.4 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 18.2 percent to $2.6 billion, both year on year.