ANKARA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye's current account registered a deficit of 3.11 billion U.S. dollars in August, bringing its annual current account deficit to more than 40.88 billion dollars, a record high since 2018, showed the latest central bank statistics on Tuesday.
The development stems from the "rising of good's deficit to 9.7 billion dollars, increasing by 6.81 billion dollars compared to the same month of the previous year," the Turkish central bank said on its website.
Statistics published previously by the Turkish Statistical Institute showed the foreign trade deficit, seen as a big component of the current account deficit, increased by 159.9 percent to 11.19 billion dollars in August year-on-year, mainly due to Türkiye's soaring energy import bill.
The official Medium-Term Program forecasted that the foreign trade deficit would decline from an estimated 105 billion dollars in 2022 to 80 billion dollars next year as the energy import bill is expected to decrease from 103.5 billion dollars to 85 billion dollars.
Last year, the Turkish government announced an economic model that pursues a current account surplus through higher exports and low-interest rates, despite rising inflation and a depreciation in the local currency.
However, the country's foreign trade deficit is widening amid a surge in the global price of commodities, which, along with the increasing inflation, threatens the government's economic program. ■