Recent Updates
- Ivory Coast: Public Finance (May)
- Kyrgyz Republic: Remittances (Jun)
- Canada: Retail Trade (Jun)
- Ukraine: Import and Export Indexes (Jun)
- Jordan: Exchange Rates (Jul)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Japan's Inflation Shows Mixed Gains
Japan's inflation rose by 0.4% in July...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Continue to Fall in July
Existing home sales declined 5.9% (-20.2% y/y) in July to 4.810 million units...
U.S. Index of Leading Indicators Fell Again in July
The Conference Board's Composite Leading Economic Indicators Index fell 0.4% m/m...
U.S. Philly Fed General Activity Index Back to Positive Reading in August
The current general activity diffusion index rose nearly 19 points in August to 6.2...
U.S. Unemployment Claims Slightly Lower
Initial claims for unemployment insurance went down 2,000 in the week ended August 13 to 250,000...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Carol Stone January 31, 2007
The trade deficit in Turkey shrank markedly in December. The Turkish Statistical Institute reported it at $3.08 billion, compared with $4.18 billion in November and $4.44 billion in December 2005. This was the smallest deficit since $3.01 billion in January 2006. After seasonal adjustment by Haver Analytics, the comparison is more distinct. December's $2.03 billion deficit was the lowest since $1.30 billion in November 2003.
Exports totaled $7.87 billion in the month, actually down 8.6% from November, but up 16.6% from a year ago. The largest categories were in the machinery sector, especially including transport equipment. Turkey is growing rapidly as a producer of cars and trucks. In 2006 as a whole, plants in the country produced 916,008 cars and pick-up trucks. Exports of these and other vehicles totaled $11.7 billion, making 13.8% of total goods exports. Total exports grew 15.9% last year, with "road vehicles" up 24.4%.
Imports were $9.90 billion, seasonally adjusted, in December, down from November by $2.9 billion or 22.5%. The unadjusted data were down 9.5% in the month. In most recent years, before seasonal adjustment, imports have spiked in December, then fallen sharply in January. So the outright decline in December's actual figure translated into a sizable cut in the seasonally adjusted result. Sources of the decline included petroleum and natural gas, chemicals, metals and transport equipment. For all of 2006, imports totaled $137.03 billion, up 17.3% from 2005.
Data on Turkey from its official national sources are contained in Haver's EMERGEMA database. That rapidly expanding database now includes 18 Middle East and African countries.
TURKEY (Mil.$) | Dec 2006 | Nov 2006 | Oct 2006 | Dec 2005 | Monthly Averages|||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006 | 2005 | 2004 | |||||
Trade Balance, SA | -2,026 | -4,161 | -5,043 | -3,254 | -- | -- | -- |
NSA | -3,083 | -4,183 | -4,446 | -4,437 | -4,353 | -3,606 | -2,865 |
Exports, SA | 7,873 | 8,618 | 6,307 | 6,769 | 7,095 | 6,123 | 5,264 |
Yearly % Chg | +15.9 | +16.3 | +33.7 | ||||
Imports, SA | 9,899 | 12,779 | 11,350 | 10,023 | 11,419 | 9,731 | 8,128 |
Yearly % Chg | 17.3 | 19.7 | 40.7 |