Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek on Tuesday said that Turkey's budget in 2013 would be 404 billion Turkish liras (TL) (approx. 223 billion USD).
Speaking at a press conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Tuesday, Simsek said that education and health were the two top sectors in the budget for 2013.
"In the first nine months of 2012, the budget deficit in Turkey was recorded as 14.4 billion TL (approx. 8 billion USD) while the primary surplus was 25.2 billion TL (approx. 14 billion USD)," Simsek stressed.
"We expect budgetary income in 2012 to be 362.7 billion TL (approx. 200 billion USD) and the budget deficit to be 33.5 billion TL (approx. 18.4 billion USD)," Simsek noted.
"We expect the primary surplus in 2012 to be 15.5 billion TL (approx. 8.5 billion USD)," Simsek noted.
"We expect the gross national product to be 1.5 trillion TL (approx. 0.8 trillion USD), growth rate to be 4 percent, Consumer Price Index (CPI) to be 5.3 percent, exports to be 158 billion USD and imports to be 253 billion USD in 2013," Simsek stated.
Touching on Syrian refugees living in Turkey, Mehmet Simsek said that, to date, Turkey allocated 400 million TL (approx. 220.7 million USD) for the Syrian refugees.
"However, when you consider the spending made by local municipalities and the Turkish government's general spending, this figure is much higher," Simsek also said.
