Turkey’s energy import bill dropped by 12.2% year-on-year in February this year, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Wednesday.

The overall energy import bill fell to $2.75 billion (TL 22.91 billion) last month as the country boosted its domestic and renewable energy production.

The data showed that Turkey’s overall import bill, including energy and other items, totaled $19.3 billion in February, with energy accounting for 14.25% of the overall figure.

Exports increased by 9.6% on an annual basis to reach $16 billion, the statistical body said.

The figures resulted in an 8.7% increase in the foreign trade deficit in the month. The gap came in at nearly $3.3 billion, according to the data.

"Foreign trade deficit, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, was $224 million in February 2021," the institute noted.

The country’s crude oil imports showed a 32.6% decrease compared to February 2020.

Turkey imported approximately 1.57 million tons of crude oil last month, down from 2.33 million tons in February 2020.

The overall export-import coverage ratio was 82.9% in February, up from 82.8% in the previous year.

In the month, the manufacturing industries products took the lion’s share from overall exports with 94.2%, followed by agriculture-forestry-fishing with 3.6% and mining-quarrying with 1.8%.

While Germany was the main destination of Turkish exports with a share of 9.4%, China was the main source of imports with a share of 11.6%.

Foreign trade statistics are calculated using two different methods: the special and the general trade systems.

The general trade system is a wider concept, including customs warehouses, all types of free zones, free circulation areas, and premises for inward processing.

"According to the special trade system, in February 2021, exports were $15.1 billion with an 8.8% increase and imports were $18.58 billion with a 9.1% increase compared with February 2020," the institute said.

During the first two months of the year, exports surged by 5.9% to reach $31.04 billion and imports were up by 1.4% to reach $37.38 billion.

In the January-February period, the trade deficit narrowed by 15.9% to $6.35 billion, versus the same period last year.