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 increased by 63.5 percent to $9.2 billion compared to December 2016. In 2017, Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose by 36.8 percent year on year to $76.74 billion.
In December, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked fourth among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $831.9 million, increasing by 23.7 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 24.3 percent year on year, amounting to $522.88 million.
In 2017, Turkey's iron and steel export value increased by 33.3 percent to $8.24 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel rose by 12.9 percent to $5.6 billion, both year on year.