Turkey’s foreign trade deficit narrowed 33.2% year-on-year in April to nearly $3.06 billion, according to the general trade system, official data showed on Friday.

After trade took a sharp hit last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, Turkey’s exports in April surged 109.2% to $18.78 billion and imports rose 61.1% to $21.84 billion compared with April 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The gap came in at $4.58 billion in April 2020. For 2020 as a whole, the trade deficit climbed 69.1% to $49.915 billion.

The export-import coverage ratio was 86% this past April, up from 66.2% in 2020, the data showed.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, the gap came in at $404 million in April 2021.

With 94.7%, products from the manufacturing industries accounted for the lion’s share of overall exports in the month, followed by agriculture-forestry-fishing at 2.7% and mining-quarrying at 2%.

The ratio of high and medium-high technology products in manufacturing industries exports was 38.6% in April, up from 37.6% in the same month last year.

Germany was the main destination for Turkish exports with a total volume of $1.65 billion, while China was the main source of imports with a total of $2.4 billion.

Energy import bill up 123.1%

The data also showed the country’s energy import bill increased by 123.1% year-on-year to $3.3 billion last month.

The overall bill soared due to an increase in industrial output.

The country’s crude oil imports showed a 9% increase compared to April 2020.

Approximately 2.56 million tons of crude oil were imported last month, up from 2.35 million tons a year ago.

Foreign trade statistics are calculated using two different methods: the special and the general trade systems.

The general trade system is a wider concept, including customs warehouses, all types of free zones, free circulation areas and premises for inward processing.

According to the special trade system, exports were $17.85 billion, up 111.9% year-on-year in April, while imports increased by 67.7% to some $20.88 billion.

In the first four-month period, exports and imports were up 33.1% and 19.7% to reach $68.74 billion and $82.87 billion, respectively.

The trade gap narrowed 19.7% to $14.12 billion over the same period, while the export-import coverage ratio was 83%, up on a yearly basis from 74.6%.