Turkey’s exports have increased by 19.8% year-over-year in March to reach $22.7 billion (TL 334 billion), the nation's trade minister announced Monday.
Trade Minister Mehmet Muş said the export figure hit an all-time high for the month of March.
The country's imports in March amounted to $30.9 billion, with $8.4 billion of this amount coming from energy imports, he noted.
The country's energy imports on a value basis increased by 156% year-over-year in March due to the sharply increased energy prices in the recent period, the minister said.
In March, when energy imports increased by 156% to $8.4 billion, the foreign trade deficit rose up by 77% to $8.2 billion.
The trade minister emphasized that energy prices were effective in the rise in imports and that the export-import coverage ratio was 73.4% in March, while it was 95% excluding energy imports.
"Oil and natural gas increases were effective in the increase in imports in the January-March period. Global commodity prices rose 41.8% while the Brent oil, which was $76 (barrel price) in January, rose by 70.2% to $130," he explained.
Muş said the European natural gas price rose 113% in two months.
"This situation is also reflected in energy imports. In March, our energy imports increased by 156% and reached the level of $8.4 billion. In the January-March period, it increased by 118%. We paid an energy bill of $25 billion in the first three months. In the January-March period, some $16.3 billion of the total $25.7 billion of imports resulted from the price increase in energy, especially natural gas and crude oil," the minister said.
The foreign trade deficit was up 138.4% to $26.4 billion in the three months.
Germany takes lion’s share
Muş, meanwhile, said Turkey's exports in the last 12 months reached $235.6 billion, describing it as a positive sign for the year-end target of $250 billion.
According to a press release issued by the Trade Ministry on Monday, the main destination for Turkish exports in March was Germany with $1.9 billion, up 13.7% year-on-year.
The United States followed Germany with $1.56 billion, increasing 25.6% from March 2021, and Italy with $1.27 billion, up 30.5%.
The EU's share in Turkey's exports was $9.97 billion in March, the ministry said.
Among sectors, the manufacturing industry got the lion's share with 94.9%. Agriculture-forestry-aquaculture with 3.1% and mining-quarrying with 1.5% followed it.
The main import sources were Russia at $4.1 billion, China at $3.6 billion and Germany at $2.24 billion in March 2022.
In the first quarter of this year, Turkey's exports soared 20.8% to $60.3 billion and imports rose 42.1% to $86.68 billion.
The trade minister went on to say that in addition to the increase in exports, industrial production and capacity utilization rates have reached 80% in exporting sectors.