Economy of the Arab League

Greece's current account deficit recorded an increase of 120.7 million euros year‑on‑year and stood at €1.8 billion in April, but fell €3 billion to stand at €5.6 billion in the January-April period, the Bank of Greece said on Tuesday.

Production of the Turkish construction materials industry has exhibited an annual increase of 1.3 percent in March from a year ago, according to the data from the trading group.

The annual increase in the sector's output in the first half of 2023 was 1.2 percent, said the Association of Construction Materials Producers (İMSAD).

The growth rate of the first quarter of 2023 came to 2.1%, according to Wednesday's data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), with economists speaking of a slowdown, without however changing their forecasts for the year as a whole, which range from 2% to 3%.

BELGRADE - Serbia registered a 34 bln dinar budget deficit between January and April 2023, which is 55.7 bln dinars better than the planned 89.7 bln dinars, the Ministry of Finance has announced.

Revenues totalled 562.4 bln dinars, while expenditures amounted to 596.4 bln dinars.

A 5.4 bln dinar deficit was registered in April, it said in a statement.

Germany exported goods worth 130.4 billion euros ($139 billion) in April, data published by federal statistics agency Destatis said, a 1.2-percent increase on the previous month.

In March, demand for "made in Germany" goods plunged by 6 percent.

BELGRADE - Telekom Srbija generated record-high revenues of over 120 bln dinars (over 1 bln euros) domestically and 168 bln dinars at group level last year, CEO Vladimir Lucic said on Monday.

Exports declined by 17.1 percent in April from a year ago to $19.3 billion, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) have shown.

Imports were down 4.8 percent last month compared with April 2022 to $28 billion.

The foreign trade deficit, consequently, widened 42.1 percent on an annual basis to $8.74 billion.

The capacity utilization rate (CUR) in the key manufacturing sector has increased for a second month in a row, shows data from Central Bank, while a separate survey has revealed that business morale continued to rise in May.

The unadjusted usage rate rose from 75.4 percent in April to 76 percent last month, the Central Bank data showed on May 24.

Türkiye aims to boost its revenues from service exports to $125 billion this year, says Ahmet Bolat, the head of the Services Exporters' Association (HİB).

"We are expecting a strong contribution to export revenues from the travel, tourism, education and health services," said Bolat, who is also the chairman of Turkish Airlines' Board and Executive Committee.

Türkiye's automotive industry boosted its export revenues by 11 percent on an annual basis in the January-April period to $11.3 billion, the Automotive Industry Exporters' Association (OİB) has said.

Passenger car and bus, minibus exports registered double digit growth in April, according to Baran Çelik, board chair of the OİB.