Turkish Treasury sees $2B cash deficit in October

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish Treasury saw a cash balance deficit of 11.89 billion Turkish liras (nearly $2 billion) in October, the country's Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Thursday.

The Treasury's cash revenues totaled 71.8 billion Turkish liras (some $12.5 billion), up 7% year-on-year in October.

Its expenditures, including interest payments of 7.6 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion), rose 21.8% to 83.7 billion Turkish liras ($14.55 billion), compared to the same month last year.

In October, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures were 76 billion Turkish liras ($13.2 billion).

During the first 10 months of this year the country's revenues and expenditures reached 739.2 billion Turkish liras ($130.8 billion) and 843.9 billion Turkish liras ($149.36 billion), respectively.

The Treasury received 3.06 billion liras ($541 million) from privatizations or fund income during this period -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, and land sale revenues.

The country's cash balance deficit -- cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures -- was 101.6 billion Turkish liras ($18 billion) during the first six months of the current year.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 5.75 as of the end of last month and 5.53 as of end of October 2018. The average exchange rate was 5.65 during the first 10 months of 2019.