foreign trade deficit rose to 4.95 billion in April with a 16.7 percent year-on-year increase, official data showed on May 31.

While the country’s imports surged 9.9 percent year-on-year to $17.7 billion, exports rose 7.4 percent to $12.8 billion, according to data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK).

In April, exports coverage imports was 72.2 percent while it was 73.8 percent in April 2016.

In the first four months, the deficit was $17.5 billion, with a 7.1 percent increase compared to the same period in 2016.

Compared to the same month of the previous year, exports to the EU-28 increased 2.2 percent in April, rising from $5.65 billion to $5.77 billion.

The proportion of EU countries, however, declined to 45 percent in April from 47.3 percent in the same month of 2016.

Germany again became Turkey’s largest export market (with $1.1 billion in April), followed by the United Arab Emirates ($1.02 billion), Iraq ($857 million) and the United Kingdom ($737 million).

Most imports came from China (with $1.64 billion), then Germany ($1.62 billion), Russia ($1.4 billion) and the U.S. ($980 million).

The ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing sector’s exports was 3.1 percent in April. The ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industries’ products was announced at 33.6 percent.

The ratio of high-technology products in manufacturing industries’ imports was 15.1 percent in April, while the ratio of medium-high-technology products in manufacturing industries’ products was 42.8 percent, according to TÜİK data.

May/31/2017