Turkey: Budget balance posts $20.9B deficit in Jan-Sept

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government posted a budget deficit of 140.6 billion Turkish liras ($20.9 billion) in January-September, the Treasury and Finance Ministry revealed Thursday.

Budget revenues of the country rose by 11.6% year-on-year, reaching 729.4 billion Turkish liras ($108.5 billion) in the first nine months of 2020.

Spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s budget expenditures hit 870 billion Turkish liras ($129.5 billion) from January to September, up 17.6% on an annual basis.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, posted a deficit of 32.8billion Turkish liras ($4.9 billion).

Tax revenues amounted to 578.7 billion Turkish liras ($86 billion), while interest payments were 107.8 billion Turkish liras ($16 billion) in the same period.

- Monthly figures

In September, the budget balance registered a deficit of 29.7 billion Turkish liras ($3.9 billion).

Turkey’s budget revenues totaled 78.9 billion Turkish liras ($10.5 billion) last month, up 25.1% from September 2019.

Budget expenditures in the month totaled 108.6 billion Turkish liras ($14.5 billion), up 34.4% compared to the same month last year.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a gap of 13.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion) last month.

The average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate in September was 7.5154 while one dollar traded around 6.7263 Turkish liras on average in January-September 2020.