UPDATE - Turkey's current account balance posts surplus in Oct.

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS AND COMMENTS FROM CENTRAL BANK

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's current account balance posted a surplus in October for the third month in a row, the country’s central bank announced on Monday.

In October, the country's current account surplus amounted to $2.77 billion, improving from a deficit of $3.83 billion in the same month last year, according to the Turkish Central Bank’s balance of payments report.

In August, the balance posted a surplus for the first time over the past three years with a $2.59-billion surplus, and then showed a 1.83-billion surplus in September.

Excluding gold and energy, current account balance indicated some $6.17 billion surplus in October, versus $466 million deficit recorded in the same month of 2017.

"The current account surplus is mainly attributable to the goods item indicating $799 million surplus in contrast to $5.64 billion deficit observed in the same month of the previous year.

"As well as $447 million increase in net inflows in the services item realizing $3.03 billion," the central bank said.

It stated that travel item under services recorded a net inflow of nearly $2.65 billion, going up $501 million year-on-year.

The bank also said that the 12-month rolling deficit fell to $39.4 billion as of October.

In 2017, Turkey's annual current account deficit was some $47.5 billion -- around 5.6 percent of the country's GDP. Over the last two decades, the country's highest annual current account deficit was seen in 2011 with $74.4 billion.

The country's new economic program, announced in September, is targeting a current-account-deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.7 percent this year, 3.3 percent next year, 2.7 percent in 2020, and 2.6 percent in 2021.