Türkiye foreign trade deficit rose by nearly 12% in 2025, as imports rose faster than exports, official data showed on Friday.

The trade shortfall totaled $92 billion, an 11.9% year-over-year increase, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

In December alone, the gap was up 5.6% from the previous year to $9.3 billion.

Türkiye’s exports rose by 12.7% year-over-year in December, while the full-year figure surged by 4.4% to $273.36 billion, the data showed.

Imports jumped 10.7% last month to $35.67 billion, while they increased by 6.2% in the whole of 2025 to $365.37 billion.

Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said the performance achieved in tourism and exports continued to support gains towards the country’s sustainable current account balance target.

Şimşek attributed the increase in imports partly to rising gold prices.

“Despite this, the foreign trade deficit remained below the level projected in the Medium-Term Program (MTP),” he wrote on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.

“To sustain the structural improvement recorded in the current account balance, we will continue to support high value-added production through active industrial policies and prioritize investments that increase domestic and renewable energy capacity,” he added.

The ratios of the manufacturing industries products sector, agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, and the mining and quarrying sector in total exports were 94.3%, 3.5%, and 1.6%, respectively.

High-tech’s share in the manufacturing side was at 3.8%, and medium-high tech’s share was at 39.6%.

The top destination country for Turkish exports last year was Germany with $22.16 billion, followed by the U.K. with $16.77 billion and the U.S. with $16.33 billion.

China was the top source of imports with $49.57 billion, followed by Russia with $42.37 billion and Germany with $30.11 billion.

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