Foreign Trade News from Turkey

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Confidence in Turkey's economy improved on a monthly basis in June, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on June 27.

The country's economic confidence index reached 83.4 this month, rising 7.6% from May, TÜİK said in a statement.

The rise stemmed from improvements in the consumer, services, retail trade, construction, real sector and real sector manufacturing industry confidence indexes.

"Consumer, real sector, services, retail trade and construction confidence indices increased to 57.6, 99.6, 85.4, 93.2 and 50.4 respectively in June," TÜİK said.

The services confidence index posted the highest rise among other sub-indexes, rising 7.5% month-on-month in June.

This was followed by the real sector and consumer confidence indices with 5.2% and 4.3%, respectively.

During the same period, the retail trade confidence index increased 3.7% and the construction confidence went up 1.3%.

"The economic confidence index is a composite index that encapsulates consumers' and producers' evaluations, expectations, and tendencies about the general economic situation," said the TÜİK statement.

The institute underlined that a total of 20 sub-indices are used in the calculation, with data collected in the first two weeks of each month.

A value above 100 shows an optimistic outlook for the general economic situation, while a value below 100, a pessimistic outlook.

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Nearly 6,700 new companies launched in April In Turkey, some 6,693 companies were established in April, the top trade union of the country reported on May 17.

The Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) said the number of new company launches last month fell 20.85% year-on-year.

Official figures revealed that 1,098 companies with foreign partners were established in April.

"592 of these companies had Turkish partners, 73 had Iranian partners and 72 had Syrian partners," TOBB said.

The trade union also noted that 726 companies were closed in April, marking a 25.61% annual hike.

In the January-April period, the country saw 28,722 new company launches while 3,918 companies shut down.

Last year, more than 85,000 new companies were established -- up 17% from 2017 -- while some 12,500 companies went out of business.

On June 21, TOBB will release related figures for May.

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency  

Turkey’s private sector short-term external loans down Turkey's outstanding short-term foreign loans in the private sector decreased in March, the country's Central Bank said on May 16.     

Excluding trade credits, private sector's short-term external loans totaled $12.1 billion, going down $3.3 billion from the end of 2018.     

The bank said 70.8% of all short-term loans were owed by financial institutions.      

Official figures also revealed that the private sector's long-term external loans amounted to some $210.2 billion as of March, marking a $127 million hike compared to the end of 2018.     

The bank said liabilities of the financial institutions constituted 48.9% of the long-term foreign loans.     

Regarding the currency composition, of the total long-term loans in the amount of $210.2 billion, 60.9% consists of U.S. dollar, 33.7% consists of euro, 4.1% consists of the Turkish lira and 1.3% consists of other currencies.     

"Of the total short-term loans in the amount of $12.1 billion, 43.2% consists of U.S. dollar, 35.5% consists of euro, 20.9% consists of the Turkish lira and 0.4% consists of other currencies," the bank said.     

By the end of March, principal repayments of the private sector's total outstanding foreign loans were $60.4 billion for the next 12 months.  

ISTANBUL- Anadolu Agency

Turkeys current account gap narrows in March Turkey's current account deficit has dropped to $589 million in March, decreasing by $4.14 billion compared to the same month in 2018, the Central Bank of Turkey (CBRT) said on May 13.       

The figure was nearly $4.73 billion in March 2018, according to the Central Bank's data.     

The bank said the 12-month rolling deficit reached $12.83 billion in March.     

"This development in the current account is mainly attributable to a $3.7-billion decrease in the goods deficit recording net outflow of $916 million," the bank said in its report.     

The CBRT also said Turkey's current account deficit- excluding gold and energy-posted a $3.5-billion surplus in March 2019, versus a $573-million deficit in the same month last year.