Turkey: Budget balance posts $19B deficit in Jan-Nov

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government posted a budget deficit of 132.5 billion Turkish liras ($19 billion) in January-November, the Treasury and Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

The data showed that the reading widened 42.1% compared to the same period last year.

The country’s budget revenues rose 16.1% year-on-year, reaching 932 billion Turkish liras ($134.2 billion) in the first 11 months of 2020.

Spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s budget expenditures hit 1.6 trillion Turkish liras ($230.6 billion) from January to November, up 18.8% on an annual basis.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, posted a deficit of 3 billion Turkish liras ($43 million).

Tax revenues amounted to 754.6 billion Turkish liras ($108.7 billion), while interest payments were 129 billion Turkish liras ($18.5 billion) in the same period.

- Monthly figures

In November, the budget balance registered a surplus of 13.4 billion Turkish liras ($1.6 billion).

Turkey’s budget revenues totaled 109.7 billion Turkish liras ($13.7 billion) last month, up 31.8% from November 2019.

Budget expenditures in the month totaled 96.3 billion Turkish liras ($12 billion), up 27.5% compared to the same month last year.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a surplus of 23 billion Turkish liras ($2.9 billion) last month.

The average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in November was 7.9915 while one dollar traded around 6.9491 Turkish liras on average in January-November 2020.