Turkey's trade deficit swells to $4.216 billion

Turkey's trade deficit swelled 7.9 percent year-on-year to $4.216 billion in June, the Turkish Statistics Institute said on Monday, but undercut the median forecast of $4.55 billion in a Reuters poll.
Exports jumped 25.6 percent to $7.582 billion while imports rose 18.6 percent to $11.798 billion in June. The lira tumbled in May and June amid market turbulence triggered by high inflation and weak emerging market risk appetite, making imports less affordable for Turks. Imports rose 18.3 percent year-on-year to $65.196 billion in the first six months, and exports rose 11.5 percent to $39.461 billion. The official export and import projections for 2006 are $79 billion and $124.4 billion respectively.