Turkish Treasury posts $160M cash surplus in July

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

The Turkish Treasury's cash balance recorded a surplus of 754 million Turkish liras (nearly $160 million) in July, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance announced on Tuesday.

Last month, the Treasury's cash revenues totaled 59.1 billion Turkish liras ($12.41 billion), up around 19 percent year-on-year, while expenditures -- including interest payments of 5.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.22 billion) -- rose 17 percent to 58.8 billion Turkish liras ($12.36 billion).

In July, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 53.04 billion Turkish liras ($11.14 billion) -- a 6.04-billion-lira ($1.27 billion) surplus in the primary balance.

The Treasury collected 528 million Turkish liras ($111 million) worth of revenue from privatization or fund income -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, land sale revenues -- in July.

The cash balance, which represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, saw a surplus on a monthly basis for the first time this year.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.76 last month.

Cumulative figures

Official figures showed that the Treasury received 422.6 billion Turkish liras ($100.85 billion) in cash revenue while expenditures totaled 464.3 billion Turkish liras ($110.82 billion) from January to July.

In the seven-month period, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures were 426.2 billion Turkish liras ($101.72 billion) -- a 3.6-billion-lira ($862.5 million) deficit in the primary balance.

Interest payments totaled 38.1 billion Turkish liras ($9.1 billion) -- the top contributor to the deficit -- while privatization/fund income amounted to nearly 4.2 billion Turkish liras ($1 billion) over the same period.

As a result, the seven-month cash balance posted a deficit of 37.5 billion Turkish liras (some $8.96 billion) between January and July.

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 seven-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.19, while one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average in 2017.