Turkey's exports dropped 5.7% in August year-on-year to reach $12.5 billion, the country's statistical authority announced on Wednesday.

Turkey’s imports, on the other hand, rose 20.4% to stand at $18.7 billion in the month, versus the same month last year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

The foreign trade deficit was $6.3 billion in August, up 168.2% year-on-year, it said.

In August, the export-to-import coverage ratio was 66.5%, while it was 85% the same month last year.

The share of manufacturing industries products in total exports was 94.9%, while agriculture, forestry and fishing’s share was 2.8%, and mining and quarrying was 1.8%.

The share of high technology products in manufacturing industries exports was 3.2%.

Turkey's main partner for exports was Germany with $1.2 billion dollars in the month.

It is followed by the UK with $989 million, the US with $740 million, Iraq with $640 million.

Meanwhile, China was the top country for Turkey's imports with $1.9 billion, followed by Germany with $1.7 billion, Iraq with $1.7 billion, Russia with 1.3 billion, and Switzerland with $1.1 billion.

The share of the first five countries in total imports was 41.6%.

January-August period

Exports and imports dropped 12.9% and 1.2%, respectively, in the January-August period.

In the first eight months of 2020, exports totaled $102.3 billion with a 12.9% fall and imports reached $135.3 billion with a 1.2% drop year-on-year.

The foreign trade deficit rose by 69.9% to $33.4 billion compared to the same period last year.

"In the same period, export-to-import coverage ratio was 75.6% while it was 85.8% in January-August 2019," it noted.