Turkey’s current account deficit widened more than expected due to higher prices energy.
He said Turkish Central Bank On its website Monday, the gap was $4.01 billion in July, an increase of $3.70 billion over the previous year. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts was $3.70 billion in July.
Key points:
- The goods trade deficit was $9.31 billion in July.
- Services recorded a surplus of $5.78 billion, driven by higher tourism revenues.
- The net portfolio outflows amounted to 631 million dollars, while the inflows from foreign direct investments amounted to 252 million dollars.
- Net errors and omissions, or anonymous capital movements, showed monthly inflows of $5.47 billion, bringing inflows during the January-July period to about $24.4 billion.
- Official reserves rose by $4.42 billion.
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Turkey’s central bank will hold its next rate-setting meeting on September 22nd. The monetary authority cut the interest rate by 100 basis points to 13% last month, despite inflation rising to a 24-year high of 80%.
Turkey’s current account deficit is expected to reach 5.9% of GDP this year, supported by an estimated trade deficit of $105 billion due to higher energy prices.