According to the leading January foreign trade data announced by the Ministry of Commerce within the scope of GTS (general trade system); Compared to the same month of the previous year, exports increased by 2.46% to 15.05 billion USD, while imports decreased by 5.63% in the same period to 18.12 billion USD. In this context, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 31.95% in the January period to 3.08 billion USD.
Germany was the country to which we export the most in January, followed by the USA, Italy and England. In import items; China took the first place in January 2021, followed by Russia, Germany and Iraq. Looking at the goods groups, raw material (intermediate goods) exports increased by 7.15% in January; exports of investment (capital) goods and consumer goods declined slightly. It is seen that imports declined by single digits in all categories (investment, consumption, raw material).
The Covid-19 epidemic, which has affected the world since March, has also had an impact on foreign trade volumes, however, it has been observed that these effects have gradually diminished since June, when the economies began to normalize. The slight increase in exports and the decline in imports due to the decrease in items such as energy and gold were effective in the narrowing of our foreign trade deficit compared to last year. Although exports are limited in a period when there are restrictions coming back due to the second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in global markets and additional troubles caused by the mutant virus, it is positive that the foreign trade deficit decreased by reducing imports in this period. In a significant period of 2020, the effect of gold imports, whose share in our import increased last year, decreased in January. In January, energy imports decreased by 34.9% compared to the previous year, while gold imports decreased by 21.5%.
Although the continuation of the Covid epidemic still poses a risk to the outlook of our export markets, it will be possible to see our reflections on the import side of the limitation in demand. On the other hand, 2021 was a year in which we made a strong entry in terms of leading indicators. While manufacturing PMI was realized as 54.4 in January, it is seen that production and new export orders entered the growth zone again.
