Turkey's budget balance sees $16.7B deficit in Jan-Aug

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government registered 110.9 billion Turkish liras ($16.7 billion) budget deficit in January-August, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Tuesday.

The figure was up 63% compared to the same period last year, the ministry data showed.

Increasing 10% on an annual basis, the country's budget revenues hit 650.5 billion Turkish liras ($98.1 billion) in the first eight months of this year.

The country’s budget expenditures totaled 761.4 billion Turkish liras ($114.9 billion) in January-August, expanding 16% year-on-year.

Ministry data revealed that the budget balance excluding interest payments saw a deficit of 19.3 billion Turkish liras ($2.9 billion).

Tax revenues stood at 510.4 billion Turkish liras ($77 billion), while interest payments were 91.6 billion Turkish liras ($13.8 billion) in the same period.

- Monthly figures

In August, the budget balance posted a deficit of 28.2 billion Turkish liras ($7.27 billion). Turkey’s budget revenues reached 108.6 billion Turkish liras ($14.9 billion) last month, a 15% rise from the same month last year.

Budget expenditures last month hit 80.3 billion Turkish liras ($11 billion), down 14% compared to August 2019.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a gap of 40 billion Turkish liras ($5.5 billion) last month.

The average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this August was around 7.27, while one dollar traded around 6.63 liras on average in the first eight months of this year.