ANKARA, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's exports slightly increased by 0.13 percent annually in April, amounting to 19.3 billion U.S. dollars, a cabinet minister said on Friday, citing preliminary data.
"It is a limited increase, but this is mainly because factories are closed for the first half of April during the one-week Ramadan holiday," Turkish Trade Minister Omer Bolat said at a press conference.
Imports rose by 4.24 percent year-on-year to 29.17 billion dollars in April, he said, adding, "We managed to keep it below the limit of 30 billion dollars."
In the January-April period, the country's overseas shipments totaled 82.9 billion dollars, up by 2.7 percent from the prior year, Bolat said.
Türkiye's trade balance posted a deficit of 9.9 billion dollars in April, with an annual hike of 13.3 percent, he added.
Türkiye's foreign trade deficit declined by 12.4 percent in March from a year ago to 7.3 billion dollars, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute on Tuesday.
In the January-March period, the foreign trade deficit decreased by 41.5 percent from 34.79 billion dollars to 20.34 billion dollars, the statistics showed. ■