Turkish exports up 65.5% to hit $16.5B in May

Turkey's exports hit $16.5 billion in May 2021, up by 65.5% year-on-year, the country's trade minister announced on Wednesday.

"We achieved the second-highest-ever May figure," Mehmet Mus said in a news conference in the capital Ankara, citing preliminary export figures.

The 12-month rolling export figures reached $193.3 billion in May, the highest ever yearly figures, the minister underlined.

He stressed that Turkish imports also jumped 54% on an annual basis to $20.6 billion last month.

The foreign trade deficit was $4.1 billion in May.

The exports/imports coverage ratio was 80% last month, up by 5.6 percentage points on a yearly basis, he added.

With normalization steps in the pandemic period, Turkey aims to surpass its export target of $198 billion in 2021 and reach over $200 billion levels, Mus stated.

In the January-May period, the country's exports surged 38.3% year-on-year to $85.2 billion, he said.

The export-import coverage ratio increased by 7.8 points to 82.3% in this period, the minister added.