Türkiye’s exports climbed 9.2% year-over-year in September, while imports jumped much higher, the country's trade minister said Tuesday, as surging energy import costs continue to widen the trade deficit.

Exports rose to $22.6 billion last month, while imports surged 41.5% from a year ago to $33 billion, Mehmet Muş told a meeting in the Black Sea province of Trabzon to announce the preliminary figures.

The trade deficit leaped around 299% year-over-year in September to nearly $10.4 billion, the data showed.

Exports to Germany, the country's top market, jumped 18.2% to over $2 billion. It was followed by the U.S., where sales jumped 0.7% to nearly $1.38 billion.

Iraq ranked third as it received $1.28 billion worth of Turkish goods, a 24.3% year-over-year increase.

Türkiye received most goods from Russia at about $6.93 billion, leaping 186.7% from a year ago, the data showed.

Imports from China and Switzerland, the second and third biggest import markets in September, rose 28% and 764.2% to $3.71 billion and $2.18 billion, respectively.

Foreign sales from January through September jumped 17.1% from a year ago to $188.22 billion. Imports were up 40.8% to over $272 billion.

Muş said energy imports constituted around a third of total imports in the first nine months of the year.

The trade gap rose 158.5% year-over-year to $83.82 billion in the first nine months, the data showed, Daily Sabah reports.