Türkiye's trade deficit widened 14.2% year-over-year to $12.2 billion (TL 324.84 billion) in July, according to official data released Tuesday.

Turkish exports increased 8.3% from a year earlier to $20.1 billion in July, while imports soared 10.5% to $32.3 billion, the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) showed.

Excluding energy products and non-monetary gold, Türkiye last month posted a foreign trade gap of $6 billion.

The exports-to-imports coverage ratio fell to 62.2% this July compared to 63.4% in July 2022.

Türkiye's outbound shipments to its main trading partner Germany totaled $1.67 billion in July, followed by Italy and the United States, both with $1.1 billion, Iraq with $978 million and the United Kingdom with $962 million.

China was the main source of Türkiye's imports in July with $4.6 billion, followed by Russia ($3.65 billion), Germany ($2.84 billion), Switzerland ($2.46 billion) and the U.S. ($1.60 billion).

In the January-July period, Türkiye's overseas shipments posted a 0.7% year-over-year decline to $143.29 billion. Its imports, on the other hand, hiked 0.5% to $216.83 billion in the same period.

Türkiye's foreign trade deficit widened 18.1% from the prior year to $73.54 billion in the first seven months of this year, according to the data.

Energy import bill down in July

Meanwhile, Türkiye's energy import bill decreased by 35.2% to $5.01 billion in July compared to the same month of 2022, the TurkStat data showed.

The country's energy import bill totaled $7.74 billion in July last year.

At $5.01 billion, energy accounted for 15.5% of the overall import figures in Türkiye in July, the data highlighted.