Daily Times

Turkey’s foreign trade deficit increased by 6.9 percent a year-on-year in November and soared to 5.402 billion US dollars, the Turkish Statistical Institute announced on Friday. The export-import coverage ratio, which was 76.1 percent in November in 2020, grew to 79.9 percent in the same month this year, the Turkish institute said in a report.

According to the provisional foreign trade data, the country’s exports increased by 33.7 percent in November and reached 21.506 billion dollars, while imports increased by 27.3 percent and amounted to 26.908 billion dollars. During the period between January and November, Turkey achieved 203.9 billion dollars worth of exports. Turkish authorities earlier announced that Turkey targets earnings of 242 billion dollars in export in 2023.

Addressing the business people in Istanbul, the financial hub of Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country’s economy is on a growth path with a focus on investment, production and export surplus. Turkey has long been struggling against depreciation of the Turkish lira and high inflation, which was over 21 percent in November.

Erdogan noted that his government significantly controlled the “fluctuation in the exchange rate,” and by the beginning of 2022, the rate will be further stabilized at a “reasonable” level. The lira was traded at 13.20 against one dollar at 12:15 pm local time (0915 GMT) on Friday.

“We are now concentrating all our strength and resources on establishing and developing our new economy focused on employment and stability,” he said.

The Turkish national currency plunged to a record low of 18.30 per dollar last week, losing nearly 60 percent of its value since the start of the year. The sharp depreciation forced the government to impose new measures to rescue the currency.