The Treasury and Finance Ministry said Monday that the quota application measure, which has been in force since August last year and limits the imports of unprocessed gold in Türkiye, has positively impacted the current account balance.

The Treasury's statement noted that the import of unprocessed gold between the introduction of the quota in August and the end of the year dropped by $3.2 billion (TL 104 billion) compared to the same period a year earlier to $10.3 billion. In terms of quantity, it declined by 32.7% to 169.6 tons.

There is a monthly quota of 12 tons of unprocessed gold imports. Of this, 25% is allocated to jewelry exporters, 38% to jewelry businesses for sales, and 33% to precious metal intermediary institutions that have imported unprocessed gold under the quota application in 2022 and 2023.

The statement also noted that the import of unprocessed gold in the first two months of 2024 stood at $2.1 billion, a decrease of $6.8 billion compared to the same period of the previous year. "In this period, the import of unprocessed gold decreased by 77.9% to 33.1 tons in terms of quantity," it said.

"In the upcoming period, it is expected that the improvement in the current account balance will continue, and it is evaluated that the gold balance will continue to contribute positively to this view," the statement read.

"In this context, it is seen that the quota application has positively affected the current account balance by limiting the import of unprocessed gold."

The Treasury drew attention to the fact that 39% or $19.4 billion of the current account deficit of $49.1 billion in 2022 originated from net gold imports.

In the first seven months of 2023, net gold imports accounted for 42% ($17.7 billion) of the $42.3 billion deficit, according to the ministry.

The quota application commenced in August 2023 and was expanded in scope in September 2023.

The Treasury pledged to monitor closely and take the necessary measures to ensure that the application would continue to be implemented in the upcoming period.

"As our Ministry, in the upcoming period, priority will be given to increasing the access of the sector to unprocessed gold in line with the raw material needs of the sector and the actors in the sector that are engaged in export and foreign exchange earning activities, and the implementation will continue to be closely monitored and necessary measures will be taken diligently," the statement said.