ISTANBUL

Turkey's foreign trade deficit narrowed by 40.1% on an annual basis to some $1.44 billion in October, according to official figures released on Monday.

The country's exports and imports saw an annual rise of 20.1% and 12.8% to reach $20.79 billion and $22.23 billion, respectively, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported.

Excluding the energy and gold trade, Turkey's exports and imports were $16.4 billion and $15.6 billion, respectively.

Foreign trade surplus -- excluding energy products and non-monetary gold -- was $3.13 billion in October, TurkStat said.

The export-import coverage ratio was 93.5% in October.

In the first 10 months of 2021, Turkey's exports grew 33.9% on a yearly basis to hit $181.7 billion, while imports were up by 22.5% to $215.53 billion.

The trade balance during the January-October period saw a deficit of $33.86 billion, a 15.9% decrease from the corresponding period last year.​​​​​​​

"Exports coverage imports was 83.1%, while it was 76.2% in January-October 2020," it added.