Türkiye’s goods trade deficit narrowed in October as exports grew faster than imports, with Trade Minister Ömer Bolat calling the $25.9 billion export total a record for the month.
The Trade Ministry reported a $6.7 billion deficit, down 11.4% from $7.56 billion in October 2025. Goods exports increased 8.1% from a year earlier to $25.9 billion, while imports rose 3.4% to $32.58 billion.
Bolat said goods exports over the 12 months through October reached $285.6 billion, exceeding the government’s $282 billion target. He put goods and services exports for the same rolling period at $413 billion, above a $410 billion goal. The comparison covers 12 months, rather than exports made solely in calendar 2026.
The ministry said exports covered 79.4% of the October import bill, up 3.4 percentage points from a year earlier. The ratio was 100% when energy was excluded and 101.7% when both energy and gold were excluded.
For January through October, imports exceeded exports by $77.67 billion. Goods exports during those 10 months totaled $236.84 billion, a 5.5% annual increase, while imports rose 5.1% to $314.5 billion.
The manufacturing industry accounted for 93.3% of October exports, worth $24.15 billion. By broad economic category, intermediate goods made up 50.4% of exports at $13.04 billion. They represented a larger share of imports, at 71.7%, or $23.36 billion.
Of October’s goods exports, $10.4 billion went to the European Union, the largest market by country group. Germany bought $2.07 billion, more than any other individual destination. The United States bought $1.86 billion and the United Kingdom $1.38 billion.
China was Türkiye’s largest individual source of imports in October at $4.41 billion. Germany supplied $2.22 billion in goods, followed by the United States at $1.77 billion.
