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

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS AND COMMENTS FROM CENTRAL BANK

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's current account balance showed a surplus in September for the second consecutive month this year, the Turkish Central Bank (CBRT) announced on Monday.

According to the CBRT's balance of payments report, the country's current account surplus totaled $1.83 billion in September, improving from last year's deficit of $4.4 billion.

In the previous month, the balance posted a surplus for the first time over the past three years with a $1.86-billion surplus.

Monday's figures also met expectations, as an Anadolu Agency survey on Friday showed that a group of 19 economists had forecast a surplus of $1.97 billion on average.

"Gold and energy excluded current account indicated a $5.07-billion surplus, in contrast to $588 million deficit observed in the same month of 2017," the Central Bank said.

"In this month, goods deficit decreased by $5.9 billion compared to the same month of 2017, realizing as $825 million," the bank said. "And primary income deficit decreased by $127 million to $938 million."

"Services item recorded net inflow of $3.5 billion increasing by $358 million year-on-year, mainly stemming from $166 million net increase in travel revenues observing as $2.85 billion in September 2018," it added.

The bank also reported that the 12-month rolling deficit fell to nearly $46 billion as of September, while the current account balance recorded a deficit of around $30 billion in January-September this year.

Turkey's year-end current account deficit would be $35.7 billion on average -- ranging between $28.5 billion and $41 billion -- according to the Anadolu Agency survey.

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.