Türkiye's foreign trade deficit rose to the highest in three months in September, as imports grew faster than exports, official data showed on Friday.
The deficit climbed 33.8% to $6.9 billion (TL 290.15 billion) in September, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said, compared to $5.16 billion a year ago. That marked the largest gap since June.
In September, exports climbed by 2.8% annually to $22.5 billion, and imports surged by 8.7% to $29.4 billion, the data showed.
Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, the foreign trade shortfall was $1.21 billion.
The data by the TurkStat also showed Türkiye's energy import bill decreased by 3.6% year-over-year to $4.53 billion in September.
The country's energy import bill totaled $5.7 billion last year.
Energy accounted for 15.4% of the overall import figures in September.
Crude oil imports saw a 62.4% increase to 2.73 million tons in September, compared to 1.68 million tons in September 2024.
The top destination country for Turkish exports in September was Germany with $1.9 billion, followed by the United Kingdom with $1.38 billion and the United States with $1.35 billion.
The main partner for imports was China with $4.2 billion, followed by Russia with $3.24 billion and Germany with $2.36 billion.
On a seasonally and calendar-adjusted basis, exports dropped 4.3% over the month, while imports grew by 8.2%.
From January through September, the country's exports totaled $192.6 billion, up 4.1%, and imports were at $252.6 billion, up 5.9%.
The foreign trade deficit in the nine months was $67 billion, up 11.8% compared to the same period of 2024.
