Türkiye

The Turkish parliament is gearing up to commemorate National Sovereignty and Children's Day with a series of special events spanning four days, beginning April 20.

The foreign trade deficit declined by 44.2 percent in February from a year ago, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) has shown.

The country's exports rose by 13.6 percent year-on-year to $21.08 billion, while imports plunged 9.2 percent to $27.85 billion, leading to a foreign trade deficit of $6.77 billion.

Representatives of 150 American companies will attend Trade Winds forum to be held in Istanbul in May to explore investment and partnership opportunities.

The bilateral trade volume between Türkiye and Israel has declined by 33 percent between Oct. 7 and March 20, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat has said. 

"Public institutions and state-owned companies never do business with Israel," Bolat said in an interview with private broadcaster 24 TV.

Some 2.3 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye in February, pointing to a strong 22.6 percent increase from the same month of last year, data from the Tourism and Culture Ministry have shown.

In the first month of 2024, Türkiye welcomed more than 2 million foreign holidaymakers, which marked a 2.1 percent annual increase.

Türkiye and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have inked what Trade Minister Ömer Bolat hails as a "historic agreement" to launch negotiations on a free trade agreement.

Türkiye's external assets declined by 1.1 percent from the end of 2023 to stand at $324.5 billion as of January, the country's Central Bank has said.

Liabilities against non-residents recorded $624.5 billion, indicating an increase of 1.9 percent within the same period.

Türkiye's competition board has taken decisive action against tech giant Meta, issuing a temporary injunction over concerns related to data sharing practices between its Instagram and Threads platforms.

Türkiye's share in global arms exports increased from 0.7 percent in 2014-2018 to 1.6 percent in 2019-2023, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

This marked a staggering 106 percent change between the two periods.

Türkiye ranked 11th largest exporter in the world in 2019-2023.

Türkiye, a producer of scorpion antivenom for several decades, is now preparing to export the product to European countries.

Live scorpions collected from the southeastern provinces of Şanlıurfa and Diyarbakır are brought to the laboratory, where suitable living conditions are provided, and venom is extracted through electrical stimulation.