Turkey's services exports rose gradually, hitting $33.8 billion in 2018, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TurkStat) data Thursday.

"Services exports were $27.6 billion in 2016; they increased by 12.4% in 2017 to $31.0 billion, and increased by 9.0% to $33.8 billion in 2018," TurkStat said in a statement.

Transportation services had the highest share in services exports with $24.7 billion or 73% share in 2018.

The country's services imports also surged during the same period to $23.3 billion.

More than half of Turkey's services imports and exports were with its main trading partner EU with a share of 52.9% in 2018.

Services exports to the EU and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries in 2018 were $15.8 billion, while imports from the bloc were $12 billion, the statement read.

Germany took first place for services exports with $4.3 billion with a share of 12.7%, followed by the U.S. (7.9%) and the U.K. (5.4%) in 2018.

The top country for Turkey's services imports was the U.S. with a share of 10.3% or $2.4 billion.