Turkiye posts $3.27 bn current account deficit; smaller than expected

A deficit implies the country is consuming more from overseas than it is selling abroad.

The market had forecast a deficit of $3.7 billion. The revised CAD for January was $2.52 billion.

The deficit took the gap for the first two months this year to almost $5.79 billion.

The annualized shortfall came in at $31.8 billion in February, the data showed. The goods deficit in the month was at $4.75 billion.

The February deficit fell by $5.8 billion compared to a year ago and marked an improvement of $28.3 billion from its peak in May 2023.

The CAD last year was $45.2 billion, down from $48.8 billion in 2022.

The fall in the deficit will support foreign exchange reserve accumulation and "will also contribute to disinflation through the macro-financial stability channel," minister of treasury and finance Mehmet Simsek wrote on social media platform X, earlier called Twitter.

The government expects the decline to continue gradually in the next few months due to the impact of policies implemented to control inflation.

"This trend indicates that the current account deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio may be below 2.5 per cent by the end of the year," the minister added.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)