Turkey’s External Trade Balance Shows Strain Despite Steady Export Growth

Turkey’s foreign trade performance in November 2025 delivered a mixed picture: exports continued their modest upward trend, but imports expanded slightly faster, widening the country’s trade deficit. The latest figures indicate that Turkey’s export engine remains active yet insufficient to counterbalance rising foreign purchasing needs, signalling ongoing structural pressures in the economy.

According to the data, exports rose 2.2% year-on-year, reaching 22.718 billion dollars in November. Meanwhile, imports grew 2.6%, totaling 30.523 billion dollars. This asymmetry pushed the trade gap to 7.805 billion dollars, marking a noticeable deterioration from the previous year. Overall trade volume increased 2.4% to 53.241 billion dollars, but this expansion did little to offset the imbalance. As a result, the export-to-import coverage ratio slipped to 74.4%, reflecting a declining ability of export revenues to finance import demand.

Eleven-Month Trade Data Confirms Persistent Imbalance

Looking at the broader January–November period, the trend appears even more striking. Exports in these eleven months climbed 3.7%, achieving 247.188 billion dollars, while imports advanced 5.7%, reaching 329.675 billion dollars. This divergence pushed the cumulative trade deficit to 82.488 billion dollars and raised the total trade volume to 576.863 billion dollars. On an annualized basis, exports reached 270.595 billion dollars, underscoring Turkey’s stable yet moderate export performance.

Although export growth maintained resilience across various markets, import dynamics—driven largely by raw materials and investment-related inputs—continued to grow at a faster pace, sustaining a deficit that remains one of the defining challenges of Turkey’s external accounts.

Raw Materials Drive Both Exports and Imports

Breaking down the trade structure by broad economic categories highlights the central role of intermediate goods in Turkey’s industrial ecosystem. In November, raw materials (intermediate goods) topped the export list with 10.688 billion dollars, reflecting Turkey’s strong integration into global production chains. Consumer goods followed with 8.067 billion dollars, while capital goods exports amounted to 3.261 billion dollars.

Imports showed a similar pattern, illustrating the country’s dependence on foreign inputs. Raw material imports climbed to 20.680 billion dollars, far outpacing other categories. Consumer goods imports stood at 4.967 billion dollars, and investment goods imports totaled 4.660 billion dollars. This structure demonstrates that Turkey’s industrial growth remains tightly linked to imported components, intermediate products, and machinery—an ongoing challenge for improving the trade balance.

Manufacturing Dominates Export and Import Composition

A closer look at sectoral contributions further clarifies the overall picture. Manufacturing accounted for an overwhelming 93.3% of total exports, confirming the sector’s dominance in Turkey’s outward-oriented economy. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing contributed 4.5%, while mining and quarrying represented 1.7% of outbound shipments.

On the import side, manufacturing maintained an 82.5% share, revealing the sector’s heavy reliance on foreign-sourced inputs. Mining and quarrying products accounted for 10.8%—largely driven by energy-related materials—while agriculture, forestry, and fishing represented 4.1%. These ratios underline a long-standing structural reality: Turkey exports predominantly manufactured goods but must import significant volumes of raw materials, energy, and investment goods to sustain production, creating a persistent external dependency.

A Trade Profile Reflecting Structural Realities

Turkey’s November 2025 trade results illustrate an economy that continues to expand its export footprint but still faces structural vulnerabilities, particularly on the import side. Despite moderate gains, export growth trails the pace of imports, reinforcing the need for deeper value-added production, stronger supply-chain localization, and diversification of industrial inputs to improve trade sustainability.

With annualized exports approaching record levels and global demand showing signs of stabilization, Turkey’s export sector remains robust. Yet without a substantial reduction in the country’s dependence on imported intermediate goods and capital equipment, narrowing the trade deficit will remain a long-term challenge.