Turkey's Gold Exports Soar In April By 361.6 Percent

- Turkey's total exports remained unchanged in April, despite a big jump in gold exports by 361.6 percent, according to the Foreign Trade Statistics data released by Turkstat on Friday.

According to the provisional data, produced with the cooperation of the Turkish Statistical Institute and the Ministry of Customs and Trade, in April exports were 13.39 billion dollars, while imports fell by 11.1 percent to 18.36 billion dollars, pushing the foreign trade deficit by 31.9 percent down to 4.97 billion dollars.

Exports coverage imports rose to 73 percent in April, up from 64.7 percent in the same month of last year. Total exports fell by 5.7 percent to 50.48 billion dollars.

The main partner country for exports was Switzerland in April, with 1.24 billion dollars, almost all generated by gold exports.

Turkey's total gold exports rose by 361.6 percent to 1.77 billion dollars in April, while 4-month gold exports rose by 72.5 percent to 6.71 billion dollars.

Switzerland was followed by Germany with 1 billion 140 million dollars, United Kingdom by 800 million dollars and Iraq with 789 million dollars.

Automotive exports, Turkey's previous leading exports sector, fell by 10.5 percent 1.52 billion dollars, pushing the 4-month automotive exports down by 3.9 percent to 5.83 billion dollars.

In April 2015, the top country for Turkey’s imports was China with 1.91 billion dollars, followed by Germany with 1.9 billion dollars, Russia with 1.64 billion dollars and USA with 1.33 billion dollars.

Turkey's largest export item was energy in April, including oil and natural gas, which fell by 32.0 percent to 3.03 billion dollars on annual basis, due to big fall at oil prices, pulling the 4-month energy bill by 24.4 percent to 13.93 billion dollars.

Exports to the EU-28 fell by by 10.4 percent to 5.28 billion dollars and the share of the exports to the EU countries in total exports fell below 40 percent to 39.5 percent in April, against 44.1 percent in April 2014.