Türkiye's foreign trade deficit narrowed slightly in March as growth in exports surpassed that of imports, official data showed on Friday.

Exports increased by 3.2% from the same month last year to $23.4 billion, while imports climbed 2.3% to $30.7 billion, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said.

Last month's shipments marked the second-highest March figure on record, Bolat told a press conference in Ankara to announce the preliminary figures.

That brought the trade gap down by 0.5% year-on-year to $7.3 billion, the data showed.

The rise in imports was primarily driven by a rise in energy costs, particularly due to higher global natural gas prices, as well as aircraft imports during the month, Bolat explained.

When excluding gold and energy, Türkiye's imports showed a more modest annual increase of 0.9% in March, he added.

The export-import coverage ratio improved 0.7 percentage points, rising to 76.3%.

The exporters capped the first quarter with 2.5% higher shipments compared to last year, reaching $65.3 billion.

But that remained below 4.6% growth in imports, which totaled $87.9 billion in the January-March period, the data showed.

The led to foreign trade deficit widen by 11.5% year-over-year to $22.6 billion, according to Bolat.

Annualized sales at new peak

Annualized exports rose by 2.1% to $263.4 billion, a new all-time peak.

In 2024, total shipments increased by 2.5% to $262 billion, a new annual record, despite challenges such as an uncertain global outlook and slowing demand in some of Türkiye's key export markets like the European Union.

Imports dropped by 4.9% to $344.1 billion. The trade deficit shrank by 22.7% to $82.2 billion from $106.3 billion in 2023.

The goal for 2025 is to lift exports to $280 billion, according to officials.

Automotive led among sectors with nearly $3.52 billion worth of shipments in March, a 9.2 year-over-year increase. It was followed by chemicals with $2.73 billion and steel with $1.55 billion.

Defense and aerospace exports grew by almost 147% year-over-year last month to $884.25 million.

Talks on U.S. tariffs

Germany received $1.7 billion worth of Turkish goods in March and was followed by Italy with $1.2 billion and the United States with $1.1 billion.

Bolat said he would travel to the U.S. in May to discuss improving trade and the additional tariffs imposed this week.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday minimum tariff of 10% on global imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union.

Smaller, poorer countries in Asia were slapped with tariffs as high as 49%.

Economists say Trump's "Liberation Day" set of tariffs carries the risk of a potentially toxic mix of weakening economic growth and higher inflation.

Türkiye wants to negotiate to lift the 10% additional tariffs, Bolat said, adding these were the "best of the worst" given higher tariffs on many other countries.

He said they will try to turn the new period into an advantageous situation.

"We want to discuss the issue in negotiations with the U.S. Department of Commerce and Trade Representative... since there is a $2.4 billion surplus in favor of the U.S. in trade between the two countries for 2024," he added.

Bolat also said he will go to Britain that month to discuss the expansion of a free trade agreement.