Turkey's budget records $237 million surplus in July

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA

Turkey's central government's budget balance posted a surplus of 1.13 billion Turkish liras ($237 million) last month, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Wednesday.

In July, Turkey's budget revenues reached 61.8 billion Turkish liras ($13 billion), up nearly 18 percent year-on-year, according to the official data.

Budget expenditures in July were 60.7 billion Turkish liras ($12.8 billion), an annual hike of around 17.8 percent.

Excluding interest payments, the central government's budget balance saw a surplus of 9 billion Turkish liras ($1.95 billion) last month.

In the first seven months of the year, the budget saw a deficit of 45 billion Turkish liras ($10.74 billion).

Turkey's budget revenues reached 415.4 billion Turkish liras ($99 billion) from January to July, rising 18.1 percent from the same period last year.

During the same period, budget expenditures rose nearly 22.5 percent compared to same period last year, totaling 460.4 billion Turkish liras ($109.9 billion).

Tax revenues totaled 349.2 billion Turkish liras ($83.3 billion) over the same period.

The budget balance excluding interest payments saw a surplus of some 3 billion Turkish liras ($716 million) in the January-July period.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in July was 4.76, while one dollar was trading for 4.19 on average in the first seven months this year, according to the Turkish Central Bank.