Turkey’s current account deficit hits record high in January

Turkey's current account deficit widened to $9.85 billion in January, data from the central bank showed on Monday, the highest level in four decades of available data, driven by a soaring energy bill and gold imports.

According to central bank records, this was the highest monthly deficit since 1984, the first year for which such data are available. Before that time, Turkey did not have an economy large enough to generate such a deficit, the data show.

Transforming Turkey's chronic current account deficit of $48.7 billion in 2022 into a surplus is one of the main goals of President Tayyip Erdogan's economic program, which also focuses on growth, exports and employment with low interest rates.

Turkey's trade deficit, a major component of the current account, widened 38% to $14.24 billion in January, data show, mainly due to a sharp increase in gold imports and a sharp rise in the cost of energy imports.

In the same period last year, the current account showed a deficit of $6.89 billion.

Excluding gold and energy, the current account showed a surplus of $2.6 billion in January, compared with a surplus of $1.7 billion in the same month a year earlier.