According to the provisional foreign trade statistics compiled by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the Turkish Undersecretariat of Customs, in May this year Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased by 25.5 percent to $5.05 billion compared to May 2015. In the first five months of this year, Turkey's foreign trade deficit decreased by 21 percent year on year to $21.38 billion.
In May, Turkey's iron and steel exports ranked seventh among the country's products with the highest export value, totaling $489.89 million, decreasing by 4.8 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given month the value of exports of articles of iron or steel, which ranked ninth among the products with the highest export value, fell by 7.5 percent year on year, amounting to $426.7 million.
In the January-May period of this year, Turkey's iron and steel export value decreased by 25.3 percent to $2.27 billion, while the value of its exports of articles of iron or steel declined by 11.3 percent to $2.07 billion, both year on year.