Turkish Treasury sees $3.5B cash deficit in Jan-Feb

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Treasury's cash balance saw a deficit of 13.1 billion Turkish liras ($3.5 billion) this January and February, the Treasury Undersecretariat announced on Wednesday.

The Treasury received 109.5 billion Turkish liras ($28.9 billion) in cash revenue in the first two months of this year, while expenditures stood at 122.6 billion Turkish liras ($32.4 billion).

Over the same period, the Treasury's non-interest expenditures amounted to 110.4 billion Turkish liras ($29.2 billion) -- a 916 million lira ($242 million) deficit in the primary balance.

Interest payments were 12.3 billion Turkish liras ($3.2 billion), the top contributor to the Treasury's cash balance deficit in the same period.

The Treasury collected 90 million Turkish liras ($24 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 $3.5 billion deficit -- represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments, in the first two months of 2018.

Last year, the Treasury's cash balance was a deficit of 60.4 billion Turkish liras ($16.5 billion). The 12-month revenue was 636.6 billion Turkish liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures in 2017 -- including interest payments -- totaled over 697 billion Turkish liras ($191 billion).

The two-month average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this year was 3.78, while last year one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average.