Ankara, Mar 14 (IANS): Turkey's central bank has said the country's current account deficit reached nearly $9.85 billion in January, following a rapid increase in gold imports and soaring energy import bills.

The central bank's statistics on Monday showed that excluding gold and energy, the current account has a net surplus of $2.6 billion in January.

Among items constituting the current account balance, foreign trade in goods recorded a deficit of $12.43 billion, while the services registered a net surplus of $3.16 billion, Xinhua news agency reported.

Under trade in services, travel item showed a surplus of $2.45 billion.

The current account deficit in January beats the record $9. 41 billion deficit in March 2011, according to official statistics.

Meanwhile, Turkey's 12-month rolling deficit widened to $51.7 billion in January, the highest level since February 2014.

The Turkish government practices an economic model that pursues a current account surplus through higher exports and low-interest rates, despite rising inflation and a depreciation in the local currency.