UPDATE - Turkish Treasury sees $1.3B cash deficit in September

Excluding interest payments, Treasury's primary balance posts $363 million surplus last month

UPDATES WITH CUMULATIVE FIGURES IN JANUARY - SEPTEMBER PERIOD

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Treasury and Finance Ministry announced Friday that the Treasury's cash balance last month saw a deficit of 8.2 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion).

In September, the Treasury's cash revenues amounted to 62.2 billion Turkish liras ($9.7 billion), showing a 32.6 percent jump on a yearly basis.

Including interest payments of 10.7 billion liras ($1.6 billion), expenditures surged 23.2 percent to 70.5 billion liras ($11 billion).

Official figures showed that non-interest expenditures totaled 59.8 billion liras ($9.4 billion), marking a 2.3 billion lira ($363 million) surplus in the primary balance.

The Treasury received 165 million liras ($26 million) from the privatization or fund income last month -- including transfers by the Turkish Privatization Administration, 4.5G license payments, and land sale revenues.

In September, the cash deficit of $1.3 billion represents the Treasury's cash revenues plus privatization and fund income minus expenditures, including interest payments.

Last month, one U.S. dollar exchanged for 6.38 Turkish liras on average.

- January-September period

The Treasury's cash revenue totaled 560.2 billion liras ($121.5 billion) and expenditures were 614.5 billion liras ($133.3 billion) this January-September.

Non-interest expenditures amounted to 557.4 billion liras ($120.9 billion) -- a 2.8-billion-lira ($607 million) surplus in the nine-month primary balance.

As a main contributor to the cash deficit, interest payments were 57.2 billion liras ($12.4 billion), and privatization/fund income was 4.9 billion Turkish liras ($1.07 billion).

Therefore, the nine-month cash balance saw a deficit of 49.5 billion liras ($10.7 billion) over the same period.

In 2017, the Treasury's cash balance ran a deficit of 60.4 billion Turkish liras ($16.5 billion).

The 12-month revenue plus privatization or fund income amounted to 636.6 billion Turkish liras ($174.5 billion), while expenditures last year -- including interest payments -- surpassed 697 billion Turkish liras ($191 billion).

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 4.61 this January-September, while one dollar traded for 3.65 liras on average in 2017.

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