Turkey’s foreign trade deficit stood at $12.19 billion in February, widening 52.8 percent year-on-year, highlighting the impact of last month’s massive earthquakes on trade, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing Trade Ministry data.
Exports fell 6.4 percent to $18.64 billion, while imports rose 10.6 percent to $30.83 billion, the data showed.
The rise in imports was mainly due to an 858.7 percent rise in unprocessed gold imports, while the earthquakes led to a drop of $1.5 billion in exports, the ministry said.
It said that significant drops were seen in exports from the provinces of Adıyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya.