Falling Oil Prices Could Ease Türkiye's Current Account Gap, Deputy PM Says

Türkiye's current account deficit stood at 22.4 billion USD in the first eight months of 2006, a rise of 6.3 billion USD compared with the same period a year earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener told a strategic forecasting conference in Ankara organized by the Eurasia Strategic Researches Center.

Sener noted that the current account shortfall equals 6.4 percent of GNP, and that surging energy costs have been a major driver. Higher oil prices added an extra 8 billion USD to the deficit in 2005, when the full-year figure reached 23.2 billion USD. In the first eight months of 2006 alone, oil imports added 5.7 billion USD in additional costs.

On the financing side, 36.4 billion USD in capital entered Türkiye during the same eight-month period, with direct foreign investment of 12.1 billion USD covering roughly 54 percent of the deficit.

Sener said declining global crude and commodity prices should improve the country's external balance. He estimated that every 10-USD drop in the per-barrel price of oil would trim Türkiye's energy import bill by about 4.2 billion USD and cut the current account deficit by 3 to 3.5 billion USD annually.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in October 2006, in its own words.