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The second largest import item was machinery with $1.84bn. The category was the largest item in May, valued at $1.51bn, up from $1.41bn in April. It was valued at $1.88bn, $1.89bn $1.59bn in April, May and June last year, respectively. It seems machinery imports are sticky and compressing them much further is not possible.
Oil imports remained as the country’s third largest import item compared with rising to $1.51bn from $1.24bn in May. It was at $908mn in April.
In April, May, June 2019, oil imports stood at $3.5bn, $3.6bn and $2.9bn, respectively.
Oil has traditionally been the highest-value import item for Turkey, which is almost entirely reliant on imports to meet its energy needs, but the oil price crisis that has arisen in tandem with the coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency has pushed it down the ranking.
The government sells the oil price collapse as justifying the presented official inflation and current account data—but fuel prices for Turkish consumers and the trade deficit are on the rise and oil prices bounced back in May.
Despite tariff hikes, consumer electronics imports rose to $1.32bn in June from $851mn in May while iron-steel imports were up to $1.2bn from $885mn.
5.1.2 ​Current account dynamics
Turkey's protective clothing and mask exports reached $573.4mn in the first half of this year​ amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association (IHKIB) ​said​.
Turkish companies’ export expectations for the third quarter of 2020 deteriorated​, a ​survey​ by the trade ministry has shown.
The export expectations index for the quarter declined to 83.5 from 111 in the previous survey. The index fell below the 100-mark for the first time since 2017.
The sub-index for current export orders plunged to 41.9 from the previous survey’s 91 while the sub-index for the export orders in the past three months fell to 40.3 from 100.
The survey also showed that the import expectations index for the third quarter dropped to 82.3 from 98.2.
26​ TURKEY Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com