In 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak ravaged world economies and battered supply chains, particularly in Turkey’s main export destination, Europe, the country’s foreign sales slipped around 6.3% on an annual basis to $169.48 billion (TL 1.24 trillion), according to official data released Friday.
Turkey‘s imports last year rose 4.3% to $219.4 billion, bringing the foreign trade deficit to $49.9 billion, an increase of 69.1%, the country’s statistical authority, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
The export-import coverage ratio was 77.2% in 2020, down from 86% the previous year.
Among sectors, the manufacturing sector was the best performer with a share of 94.3% in overall exports in 2020.
Meanwhile, the ratio of intermediate goods in the year was 74.3%.
In 2020, Germany was Turkey’s main partner in foreign trade, with $15.97 billion in exports and $21.7 billion in imports.
Country-to-country trade balances showed that Turkey had its largest deficit with China – nearly $20.15 billion.
Turkey’s exports to European Union countries last year were $69.96 billion, down 8.8%, while imports were $73.27 billion, up 7.9%.
The share of high-tech products was 3.4% of the country’s manufacturing exports for the year, down from 3.5% on a yearly basis.
Foreign trade statistics are calculated using two different methods: the special and the general trade systems.
