Turkey's budget balance sees $21.2B deficit in Jan-Oct

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish central government's budget balance posted a 145.5 billion Turkish liras ($21.2 billion) deficit in January-October, according to official data on Monday.

The Treasury and Finance Ministry data showed that the reading widened by 44% compared to the same period last year.

Rising 14% year-on-year, Turkey's budget revenues hit 822 billion Turkish liras ($120 billion) in the first 10 months of this year.

The country’s budget expenditures amounted to 967.7 billion Turkish liras ($141.1 billion), a rise of 18% during the same period.

The budget balance excluding interest payments saw a deficit of 25.9 billion Turkish liras ($3.8 billion) in the 10-month period.

Tax revenues totaled at 655.4 billion Turkish liras ($95.5 billion), while interest payments were 119.6 billion Turkish liras ($17.4 billion) in the same period.

- Monthly figures

This October, the central government saw 4.9 billion Turkish liras ($615.3 million) budget deficit, narrowed 67% from the same month last year.

The budget revenues reached 92.8 billion Turkish liras ($11.7 billion) last month, climbing 42% from October 2019.

Budget expenditures last month reached 97.7 billion Turkish liras ($12.3 billion), an annual rise of 22%.

Excluding interest payments, the central government budget balance saw a surplus of 6.7 billion Turkish liras ($863.6 million) last month.

The average US dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this October was around 7.95, while one dollar traded for around 6.86 liras on average in the first ten months of this year.