Turkey posts $16B gap in budget balance in 1st half

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government registered a budget deficit of 109.5 billion Turkish liras (some $16 billion) in January-June, the country's Treasury and Finance Ministry reported Thursday.

Turkey's budget revenue reached 455.4 billion Turkish liras ($66.4 billion) in the first half of the year, up 13% year-on-year.

Budget expenditures rose 17.3% on an annual basis to hit 564.9 billion Turkish liras (82.3 billion) from January to June.

The budget balance, excluding interest payments, posted a deficit of 38.2 billion Turkish liras ($5.6 billion) in the first six months of 2020.

Official figures showed that revenue from taxes surged 9.2% to 336 billion Turkish liras ($46 billion), while interest payments were 71.2 billion Turkish liras ($10.4 billion) over the same period.

- Monthly figures

In June, the budget balance also saw a deficit of 19.4 billion Turkish liras ($2.9 billion).

Turkey's budget revenues totaled 66.3 billion Turkish liras ($9.7 billion) last month, up 19.5% on a yearly basis.

Budget expenditures in June were 85.6 billion Turkish liras ($12.5 billion), a rise of 26.8% annually.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a gap of 13.1 billion Turkish liras ($2 billion) last month.