Turkey’s foreign trade deficit rose 102.7 percent year-on-year hitting $3.4 billion in May. The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said that in May, exports stood at $9.967 billion with a 40.9 percent drop and imports at $13.387 billion with a 27.8 percent decrease compared with May 2019. From January to May, the foreign trade deficit was $21.5 billion with a 102.8 percent increase compared with the same period in 2019. The Treasury and Finance Ministry also announced that Turkeys gross external debt stock reached $431 billion at the end of March. The March figure was 56.9 percent of the countrys gross domestic product (GDP), the ministry said in a statement. The countrys net foreign debt hit $256.5 billion as of March 31, accounting for 33.8 percent of its GDP. Treasury-guaranteed foreign debt stock totaled $14.2 billion as of end-March, the data showed. The Turkish Capital Markets Board said on Tuesday it lifted a ban on short selling for the top 30 shares on the Istanbul stock exchange, while keeping the ban in place for other stocks. The board had banned short selling on all stocks listed on the Istanbul stock exchange in February. The regulator has taken similar steps in the past in times of high volatility, including