Turkey's budget sees $11.4B deficit in Jan.-August

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's central government budget balance posted a deficit of 50.8 billion Turkish liras ($11.4 billion) from January to August, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Monday.

The country's budget revenues totaled 485.7 billion Turkish liras ($109 billion) in the first eight months of this year, up nearly 19 percent year-on-year, data showed.

During the same period, budget expenditures rose 23.7 percent to 536.5 billion Turkish liras ($120.6 billion) -- marking a 50.8 billion Turkish lira ($11.4 billion) deficit.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, saw a deficit of 559.4 million Turkish liras ($125.7 million) from January to August.

Official figures showed that tax revenues rose 19.4 percent to reach 410.1 billion Turkish liras ($92.2 billion), while interest payments were 50.2 billion Turkish liras ($11.3 billion) over the same period.

Monthly figures

In August, the budget balance also saw a deficit of 5.8 billion Turkish liras ($976 million).

Last month Turkey's budget revenues totaled to 70.3 billion Turkish liras ($11.8 billion), up 23.3 percent on a yearly basis, according to official data.

Budget expenditures in August were 76.1 billion Turkish liras ($12.8 billion), a rise of around 32 percent annually.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a surplus of 2.5 billion Turkish liras ($412 million) last month.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in August was 5.94, while one dollar was trading for 4.46 on average in the first eight months of this year.