Turkey's trade deficit leapt 44.3 percent to a historic monthly high of $4.075 billion in May, official data showed on Thursday, a level above market expectations. A Reuters poll had forecast a deficit of $4 billion. Turkish exports rose 9.9 percent year-on-year to $5.681 billion in May, while imports climbed 22.1 percent to $9.756 billion, the State Statistics Institute (DIE) said.
The median forecast in the Reuters poll for imports in May was $9.800 billion and for exports $5.850 billion.
In the first five months of 2005, the deficit rose 22.7 percent from the same period last year to $16.087 billion, the DIE data showed.
Exports rose 22.1 percent to $28.973 billion and imports jumped to 22.3 percent to $45.06 billion in the Jan-May period.