ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey’s current account deficit leapt to $4.06 billion in November, central bank data showed on Monday, exceeding a poll forecast of $3.7 billion as the trade gap grew and the economy sought to shake off the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
The outbreak’s impact was reflected in September-November unemployment data, showing workforce participation down to 50.0% and those in employment down nearly 900,000 from a year earlier. The unemployment rate was 12.7%, unchanged from a month ago.
The lira, hit by dollar strength on Monday morning, was 1.7% weaker at 7.48 after the data.
The current account deficit, a perennial weak point in the economy, was mainly due to a surge in the trade deficit, which rose $2.9 billion from a year earlier, statistical institute data showed, as well as a $1.45 billion drop in services income.
The foreign trade deficit, a main component of the current account, leapt 153.5% year-on-year in November to just above $5 billion according to the general trade system, data from the country’s statistics institute showed.
Exports fell 0.9% and imports jumped 15.9% year-on-year, the institute said.
The 12-month running cumulative deficit rose to $37.974 billion, the data also showed. In its medium-term programme, the government had forecast a deficit of $24.4 billion for 2020.
That programme also forecast an unemployment rate of 13.8% at the end of this year, but the rate actually fell to 12.7% as of September-November, down from 13.4% a year earlier, held down by a ban on layoffs amid the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the rate of participation in the workforce fell to 50.0% from 53.0% a year earlier and employment decreased 896,000 to 27.4 million, the statistics institute figures showed.
The data also showed the proportion of youth neither employed nor in school was 27.6% in October, up from 26% a year earlier and edging closer to the youth employment rate of 30.6%.
Reflecting the pandemic’s toll on all workers, the number of those too discouraged to seek employment rose to a new record of more than 1.5 million, well over double the year-earlier level.
Reporting by Berna Suleymanoglu and Halilcan Soran; Writing by Daren Butler and Ali Kucukgocmen; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Kirsten Donovan
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