Turkish Treasury posts $1.46B cash deficit in October

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL

Turkish Treasury's cash balance recorded a deficit of $1.46 billion Turkish liras ($248 million) in October, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance announced on Wednesday.

Last month, the Treasury's cash revenues totaled 67.23 billion Turkish liras ($11.45 billion), up 26.7 percent year-on-year, while expenditures -- including interest payments of 4.1 billion Turkish liras ($698 million) -- rose 19.1 percent to 68.7 billion Turkish liras ($11.7 billion).

In October, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 64.6 billion Turkish liras ($11 billion) -- a 2.6-billion-lira ($442 million) surplus in the primary balance.

The cash balance of $1.46 billion represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, in October.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.87 last month.

Cumulative figures

Official figures showed that the Treasury received 627.3 billion Turkish liras ($132.6 billion) in cash revenue while expenditures totaled 683.3 billion Turkish liras ($144.5 billion) from January to October.

In the ten-month period, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures were nearly 622 billion Turkish liras ($131.5 billion) -- a 5.35 billion lira ($1.13 billion) surplus in the primary balance.

Interest payments totaled 61.3 billion Turkish liras ($12.95 billion) -- the top contributor to the deficit -- while privatization/fund income amounted to 5 billion Turkish liras ($1.05 billion) over the same period.

As a result, the ten-month cash balance posted a deficit of some 50.9 billion Turkish liras ($10.8 billion) between January and October.

Last year, the Treasury's cash balance ran a deficit of 60.4 billion Turkish liras ($16.5 billion). The 12-month revenue plus privatization or fund income amounted to 636.6 billion Turkish liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures in 2017 -- including interest payments -- surpassed 697 billion Turkish liras ($191 billion).

The ten-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.73, while one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average in 2017.