Turkey's exports up 2.3% to $14.65B in February

Turkey's exports rose 2.3% year-on-year in February to reach $14.65 billion, the country's statistical authority announced on Tuesday.

The country's imports also increased 9.8% to stand at $17.63 billion in the month, versus February 2019, TurkStat noted.

The foreign trade deficit was $2.98 billion in February, up 72% compared to the same month last year, it said.

"In February 2020, export coverage imports was 83.1% while it was 89.2% in February 2019," TurkStat added.

The institute said the manufacturing sector's share of exports was 95%, while agriculture, forestry and fishing's share was 3.2%, and mining and quarrying's share was 1.2%.

TurkStat added that the share of high-tech products was up by 0.1 points to reach 3.4% of manufacturing industries exports and dropped by 1 point to 12.9% of imports, year-on-year in February.

In February, intermediate goods took the lion's share, with 76.2% of overall exports, followed by capital goods (12.4%) and consumption goods (11.1%).

Last month, Germany remained Turkey's largest export destination, with exports totaling $1.34 billion.

Iraq, the U.K., Italy and the U.S. were other largest export destinations with $906 million, $857 million, $766 million and $740 million, respectively.

Russia was the main source of Turkey's imports last month with $1.71 billion, followed by China ($1.7 billion), Germany ($1.6 billion), the U.S. ($1.13 billion), and Iraq ($750 million).

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 $13.93 billion in February 2020, and imports were $17.23 billion.

Meanwhile, the country's exports rose 4.1% to reach $19.4 billion in the first two months of 2020, while imports increased 14.3% to reach $36.8 billion on a yearly basis.

Turkey's exports totaled $167.92 billion and imports were $171.53 billion in 2019.