Turkey: Survey shows current account balance recovery

By Erhan Cihan Unal

ISTANBUL (AA) - An Anadolu Agency survey on Tuesday showed that Turkey's current account balance to perform a significant recovery in 2018.

Economists forecast that current account balance to post a deficit of $27.7 billion in 2018, versus previous year's deficit of $47.5 billion which was around 5.6 percent of Turkey's GDP.

A group of 17 economists' current account deficit estimations ranged in $27 billion to $28 billion for the end of last year.

The current account balance figures for 2018 will be released by the country's central bank on Thursday.

In November 2018, Turkey's current account balance posted a surplus of $986 million for four consecutive months.

On a monthly basis, economists forecast a current account deficit of $1.49 billion in December -- varied between $0.9 billion and $1.8 billion.

Over the last two decades, the country's highest annual current account deficit was seen in 2011 with $74.4 billion.

Meanwhile, survey showed that Turkey's 2019-end current account balance is expected to show a deficit of $19.8 billion -- ranged between $5 billion and $28 billion.

The country's new economic program, announced in September 2018, targeted a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.7 percent last year, 3.3 percent this year, 2.7 percent next year, and 2.6 percent in 2021.

* With writing and contributions by Gokhan Ergocun from Istanbul