By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish government ran a budget surplus of 11.4 billion Turkish liras (approximately $3.06 billion) in January, the country’s finance minister said Wednesday.
"The budget showed a solid performance in the first month of the new year," Naci Agbal said.
Official data showed Turkish government revenues in January stood at 58.8 billion Turkish liras (some $15.8 billion), a 25.8 percent increase year-on-year.
"Last month, the government's tax revenues rose 22 percent to reach 48.4 billion Turkish liras [around $13 billion] and tax-excluded incomes stood at 10.4 billion liras [some $2.8 billion], up 47.2 percent over the same month in 2016," Agbal said.
Agbal stated that budget expenditures in January also rose to 47.3 billion liras (around $12.7 billion) in line with the year-end targets, an 11.3 percent rise from a year earlier.
The finance minister also stressed that the government made nearly 6.5 billion Turkish liras (approximately $1.74 billion) in interest payments last month, amid a nearly 18 billion lira (some $4.84 billion) budget surplus excluding debt interest payments.
Last year Turkey’s government ran a 29.3 billion Turkish lira ($7.81 billion) budget deficit. According to the ministry, government budget revenues reached 554.4 billion liras ($148 billion) in 2016, up 14.8 percent over 2015.
Budget expenditures for last year rose to 583.7 billion liras ($155.6 billion), a 15.3 percent rise year-on-year. Interest expenses stood at 50.2 billion liras ($13.4 billion) in that period, down 5.2 percent from the previous year.