Turkish Treasury sees $478.5M cash deficit in February

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry announced on Friday that the Treasury's cash balance posted a deficit of 3.45 billion Turkish liras ($478.5 million) last month.

In February, the Treasury's cash revenues were 98.34 billion Turkish liras ($13.64 billion), showing a 12.6% increase on a yearly basis.

Its expenditures, including interest payments of 11.39 billion liras ($1.58 billion), reached some 101.8 billion liras ($14.12 billion), up 5.9% over the same period.

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

Last month’s cash deficit of $478.5 million represented the Treasury's cash revenues minus expenditures, including interest payments.

The primary balance -- excluding interest payments -- saw a surplus of 7.94 billion ($1.02 billion) in the month.

During the first two months, the Treasury posted 29.59 billion liras ($4.1 billion) of deficit, with a revenue of 189.82 billion ($26.32 billion).

The U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was around 7.21 at the end of February.