Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit widened 38.4% year-over-year to $14.24 billion (TL 268.94 billion) in January, official data showed Monday.

Exports in the first month of the year jumped 10.3% from a year ago to $19.37 billion, while imports climbed 20.7% to $33.61 billion, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio decreased to 57.6% this January, versus 63% a year earlier.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye posted a foreign trade surplus of $1.8 billion last month.

The top export destination was Germany, having received $1.8 billion worth of Turkish goods. It was followed by the United States with $1.2 billion, Russia with $1 billion, the United Kingdom with $954 million and Italy with $916 million.

On the other hand, the top source of imports last month was Russia with $5 billion, followed by Switzerland with $4.3 billion, China with $3.6 billion, Germany with $1.8 billion and the U.S. with $1.2 billion, the data showed.

The government has prioritized low-interest rates to boost exports, production, and investment and create new jobs as part of a new economic program, unveiled in 2021.

Dubbed the Türkiye Economy Model, the program aims to lower inflation by flipping the country’s chronic current account deficit to a surplus.

Meanwhile, Türkiye’s energy import bill dropped 0.3% in January compared to the same month in 2022, the data showed.

At $8.79 billion, energy accounted for 26.1% of the overall import figure in January.

Crude oil imports showed a 13.5% decrease to 2.25 million tons of crude in January, compared to 2.60 million tons in January 2022.

Separately, the country's energy watchdog on Monday said total oil imports decreased by 6.81% to 3.75 million tons in December 2022.

Crude oil imports, the category with the highest oil import volume, fell by 23.9% in December to 2.67 million tons, the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) said in its monthly report.

Türkiye imported the majority of its oil and oil product needs from Russia in December, totaling 1.94 million tons. Iraq and Kazakhstan followed with 1.01 million tons and 198,000 tons, respectively.

Oil refinery product exports decreased by 30.8% to 788,797 tons, while output decreased by 15.5% to 2.77 million tons. Total domestic oil product sales increased by 1.46% year on year in December to 2.72 million tons, the data showed.