TURKEY's FOREIGN TRADE DEFICIT FELL by 15.4 PCT. in 2014

Turkey's foreign trade deficit fell by 15.4 percent to 84.5 billion dollars in 2014, due to lira depreciation and loan measures taken to ease the current account deficit, according to the data released by Turkstat on Friday.

Turkey's exports rose by 3.9 percent to 157.7 billion dollars in 2014, against the previous year while imports fell by 3.7 billion dollars to 242.2 billion dollars over the same period. Exports coverage imports rose to 65.1 pircent in 2014, from 60.3 percent in 2013.

Exports rose by 1.2 percent to 13.3 billion dollars in December, while imports fell by 5.6 percent to 21.8 billion dollars, pulling the monthly foreign trade deficit by 14.6 percent to 8.5 billion dollars, in line with the expectations.

Seasonally and calendar adjusted exports increased by 0.6 percent while imports decreased by 11.1 percent in December, compared with previous month. Calendar adjusted exports decreased by 2 percent, imports decreased by 9.3 percent compared with December 2013.

Exports to the EU-28 increased by 1.8 percent to 5.4 billion dollars, increasing the share of the EU countries in total exports to 40.2 percent in December 2014, 1rom 40.0 percent in December 2013.

Turkey's main exports market was Germany in December with 1.2 billion dollars, followed by Iraq with 1.1 billion dollars, the United Kingdom with 763 million dollars and the USA with 722 million dollars.

Turkey’s imports from China stood at 2.3 billion dollars in December, followed by Germany with 2.2 billion dollars, Russia with 2.1 billion dollar) and the USA with 1.1 billion dollars.