Turkish Treasury sees $3.8B cash deficit in September

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Monday that the Treasury's cash balance last month saw a deficit of 21.65 billion Turkish liras ($3.8 billion).

In September, the Treasury's cash revenues amounted to nearly 58.9 billion Turkish liras ($10.4 billion), showing a 5.2% drop on a yearly basis.

Including interest payments of around 11 billion liras ($1.94 billion), expenditures jumped 14.2% to some 80.5 billion liras ($14.2 billion).

Official figures showed that non-interest expenditures totaled around 69.5 billion liras ($12.3 billion), marking a deficit of 10.6 billion liras ($1.87 billion) in the primary balance.

The Treasury's received no privatization or fund income in September -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, and land sale revenues.

Last month, the cash deficit of $3.8 billion represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments.

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 5.67 at the end of September.