UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS; REVISES DECK
By Gokhan Ergocun
ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's current account balance posted a deficit of $273 million in October, bringing 12-month rolling deficit to $33.79 billion, the Turkish Central Bank revealed on Friday.
The figure was a $2.74-billion surplus in the same month last year, while it was down from $1.8 billion deficit previous month, the bank said.
An Anadolu Agency survey on Wednesday showed that economists expected a deficit of $200 million.
A group of 23 economists' estimates for the month ranged between a deficit of $1.2 billion and a surplus of $300 million.
The survey showed the end-2020 current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $34.5 billion.
The bank said: "This development is mainly driven by the net outflow of $1.27 billion in the goods item, increasing by $514 million.
Also, "the net inflow of $1.6 billion in services item decreased by $2.89 billion compared to the same month of the previous year."
The bank said gold and energy excluded current account amounted to $2.93 billion surplus, compared to $6.53 billion surplus in October 2019.
Travel item under services saw a net inflow of $1.33 billion, down $1.93 billion year-on-year.