Türkiye's foreign trade deficit narrowed by 56.4% year-over-year to nearly $6.3 billion (TL 196.46 billion) in January, official data shared by the country's statistical authority showed on Wednesday.

The shortfall was down from $14.29 billion in the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The country's exports rose by 3.5% on an annual basis to $19.99 billion in January, while its imports dropped by 22% to $26.22 billion, the data showed.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, the exports stood at $18.59 billion, with a 3.0% rise compared to the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, imports, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, were $18.66 billion, with a 6.2% decrease in January 2024.

The data showed that the export-import coverage ratio was 76.2% this January, up from 57.5% in the same month last year.

The foreign trade gap, excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, was $68 million in January 2024, according to TurkStat.

With 93%, products from the manufacturing industries accounted for the lion's share of overall exports in the month, followed by agriculture-forestry-fishing at 5% and mining-quarrying at 1.5%, respectively.

The foreign trade volume dropped by 1.8% and stood at $37.25 billion in January, according to the data. Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold export-import coverage realized at 99.6%.

Germany was the main destination for Turkish goods, with $1.76 billion, while Russia was the biggest source of imports, with $4.32 billion.

Regarding exports, Germany was followed by the U.S. with $1.22 billion, Iraq with $1.01 billion, the U.K. with $1.02 billion and Italy with $999 million.

On the other hand, the list of top five countries Türkiye imported most from, apart from Russia, included China with $2.89 billion, Germany with $1.91 billion, the U.S. with $1.4 billion and Italy with $1.18 billion.

In January 2024, seasonally and calendar-adjusted exports and imports decreased by 5.1% and 4.8% respectively, compared with the previous month.

According to the special trade system, exports were $17.92 billion, up 2.5% year-over-year in January and imports were $24.8 billion, with a 22.1% decrease compared to January 2023.