Türkiye’s foreign trade deficit narrowed by 17.5% year-over-year in October to $6.5 billion (TL 187.93 billion), according to the official data the country’s statistical authority shared on Wednesday.

The gap declined from $7.9 billion in the same month a year earlier, Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) data showed.

The country’s exports last month rose by 7.4%, totaling $22.87 billion, TurkStat said. The data showed that imports grew by 0.6% and stood at $29.39 billion.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye posted a foreign trade gap of $1.5 billion last month.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio rose to 77.8% versus 72.9% in October 2022.

The data also showed that the country’s 10-month exports this year surged by 0.2% compared to last year and reached $209.9 billion, while the imports rose by 1.1% to $303.8 billion in the same period.

Türkiye’s shipments to its leading trading partner, Germany, amounted to $1.76 billion last month, the data showed, followed by Iraq with $1.32 billion, the U.S. with $1.25 billion, the United Arab Emirates with $1.115 billion and Italy with $1.11 billion.

In October, Türkiye imported the most from China ($3.76 billion), followed by Russia ($3.23 billion), Germany ($2.6 billion), Italy ($1.34 billion) and the U.S. ($1.24 billion).

Medium-high and high-tech’s share of overall exports in October rose from 37.8% to 39.7% year-on-year, the data showed.

In January-October 2023, the foreign trade deficit widened to $93.9 billion, up 3.2% compared with the first ten months of last year.