Istanbul, Aug 31 () – Turkey's foreign trade deficit rose to its highest level in 2015 in July at 7.03 billion dollars. The foreign trade deficit has risen for the first time on monthly basis this year in July, on annual basis.

According to the provisional data, released within the cooperation of the Turkstat and the Ministry of Customs and Trade, in July 2015; exports fell by 16.2 percent to 11.18 billion dollars and imports fell by 8.7 percent to 18.21 billion dollars, compared with July 2014.

While the foreign trade deficit rose by 6.5 percent from 6.6 billion dollars to 7.03 billion dollars in July, rate of exports meeting imports fell to 61.4 percent in July 2015, against the rate of July 2014, 66.9 percent.

Thus, exports fell by 9.4 to 84.65 billion dollars, and imports fell by 10.6 percent to 124.96 billion dollars, while foreign trade deficit dropped by 13 percent to 40.3 billion dollars.