According to the December GTS (General Trade System) foreign trade data announced by TURKSTAT in cooperation with the Ministry of Trade; Turkey's exports in December 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year, showed an increase of 16% USD 17.85 billion, while imports increased by 11.6% in the same period amounted to 22.38 billion USD. Thus, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 3% between December 2019 and December 2020 and reached 4.53 billion USD. The ratio of exports to imports increased from 76.7% to 79.8% in the period in question.
Germany was the country to which we export the most in December, followed by the UK, USA and Iraq. While exports to 27 countries that make up the European Union increased by 21.6% to USD 7.19 billion, it is seen that the share of the EU in our total exports increased from 38.4% to 40.3%. In import items; China took the first place in December 2020, followed by Germany, Russia and Italy. While the share of capital and consumption goods in total imports increased in December, the share of intermediate (raw materials) goods decreased. While the share of high technology products in our total exports was 3.8%, the share of imports of the same group in our total imports was 12.8%.
According to STS (Special trading system), Turkey's exports increased by 15.5% in December 2020 compared to the same period of the previous year USD 16.93 billion, while imports increased by 10.6% in the same period in USD 21.03 billion has been realized. The ratio of exports to imports was 80.5% in the said period.
December data show the limiting effects of tight financial conditions on domestic demand with the slowdown in import growth. As a matter of fact, the boom in domestic demand accompanied by high loan growth in the 3Q20 period caused the import side to rise faster than exports in terms of external balance. The increase in exports looks positive, December is the month when the effects of lockdown abroad begin to be seen. The slowing effect of these measures in the economies, which are our export markets, still causes downside risk accumulation for exports. We will continue to monitor the effects of the epidemic and vaccination and its effects on global trade, especially for our export position.
