Turkey's energy import bill decreased by 34.5% to $2.14 billion this August compared to the same month last year, according to the national statistical body Wednesday.

The overall energy import bill was down last month, with a fall in the country's crude oil purchases, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The data shows that the country's overall import bill, including energy and other items, totaled $18.74 billion in August, with energy accounting for 11.42% of the overall import figures.

The country's crude oil imports also showed a nearly 30% drop compared to August 2019. Turkey imported approximately 1.87 million tons of crude oil last month, down from 3.04 million tons in August 2019.

Overall exports decline in August

The country's overall exports dropped 5.7% in August year-on-year to reach $12.5 billion, the data showed.

Imports, on the other hand, rose 20.4% to stand at $18.7 billion in the month, versus the same month last year.

The country's foreign trade deficit leaped 168.2% year-on-year in August to $6.278 billion, the statistics institute data showed.

In August, the export-to-import coverage ratio came to 66.5%, while it was 85% the same month last year.

The share of manufacturing industries products in total exports was 94.9%, while agriculture, forestry and fishing's share was 2.8%, and mining and quarrying was 1.8%. The share of high technology products in manufacturing industries exports was 3.2%.

Turkey's main partner for exports was Germany with $1.2 billion in the month. This was followed by the U.K. with $989 million, the U.S. with $740 million, Iraq with $640 million.

Meanwhile, China was the top country for Turkey's imports with $1.9 billion, followed by Germany with $1.7 billion, Iraq with $1.7 billion, Russia with $1.3 billion and Switzerland with $1.1 billion.

The share of the first five countries in total imports was 41.6%.

Exports, imports fall in first 8 months

Exports and imports in the January-August period dropped 12.9% and 1.2%, respectively.

In the first eight months of 2020, exports totaled $102.3 billion with a 12.9% fall and imports reached $135.3 billion with a 1.2% drop year-on-year.

The trade deficit during the same period jumped 69.9% to $33.4 billion. "In the same period, export-to-import coverage ratio was 75.6% while it was 85.8% in January-August 2019," TurkStat noted.

In the first eight months, according to economic activities, the ratios of manufacturing industries products, agriculture, forestry and fishing, mining and quarrying in total exports were 94.4%, 3.4%, 1.7%, respectively, the data showed.

Germany was the top export market in the January-August period, with $9.76 billion. This was followed by the U.K. with $6.41 billion, the U.S. with $6.29 billion, Iraq with $5.44 billion and Italy with $4.73 billion. The ratio of the first five countries in total exports was 31.9% in January-August 2020, TurkStat said.

China was Turkey's top import market with $14.22 billion, followed by Germany with $12.64 billion, Russia with $11.29 billion, the U.S. with $7.86 billion and Iraq with $5.94 billion.