Turkish Treasury posts $8.4B cash deficit in Jan-April

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Treasury's cash balance saw a deficit of 32.6 billion Turkish liras (around $8.4 billion) between January and April, the Treasury Undersecretariat announced on Tuesday.

The Treasury received 224.5 billion Turkish liras ($58 billion) in cash revenue in the first four months of this year, while expenditures stood at 258.5 billion Turkish liras ($66.8 billion).

Over the same period, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 233.9 billion Turkish liras ($60.4 billion) -- a 9.4-billion-lira ($2.4 billion) deficit in the primary balance.

Interest payments were 24.6 billion Turkish liras ($6.3 billion), the top contributor to the Treasury's cash balance deficit in the same period.

The Treasury collected 1.3 billion Turkish liras ($350 million) revenues from privatization or fund income -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, land sale revenues, etc. -- in the same period.

The cash balance -- a $8.4 billion deficit -- represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, in the first four months of 2018.

Last year, the Treasury's cash balance ran a deficit of 60.4 billion Turkish liras ($16.5 billion). The 12-month revenue plus privatization or fund income amounted to 636.6 billion Turkish liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures in 2017 -- including interest payments -- surpassed 697 billion Turkish liras ($191 billion).

The four-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this year was around 3.87, while last year one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average.