Turkey runs $3.7 billion budget deficit in first 10 months of year

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

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The Turkish government ran a budget deficit of 104 million Turkish Liras ($32 million) in October and 12.1 billion liras ($3.7 billion) in January-October, the Finance Ministry announced on Nov. 15.

“Turkish government revenues last month stood at 43.4 billion liras ($13.2 billion), an 11 percent fall year-on-year, while budget expenditures were 43.5 billion liras ($13.3 billion), up 18.9 percent from a year earlier,” the ministry stated.      

According to the ministry, budget revenues reached 447.9 billion liras ($136.7 billion) in the first 10 months of the year, a 12.5 percent rise over the same period last year.      

Tax revenues also rose nearly 9.5 percent during the period to 365.3 billion liras ($111.5 billion).    
 
Budget expenditures in January-October rose to 460 billion liras ($140.4 billion), marking a 13.8 percent increase year-on-year.

Government expenditures for health, pensions, and welfare rose nearly 38 percent in the first 10 months of the year to 89 billion liras ($27.1 billion) over the same period last year.    
 
Personnel expenditures rose 19.1 percent, reaching almost 126 billion liras ($38.4 billion) in January-August 2016.      

Interest expenditures stood at 44.6 billion liras ($13.6 billion) in that period, a fall of 5.9 percent.      

The government is aiming for a budget deficit of 29.7 billion liras (nearly $10 billion) at the end of the year, according to the Finance Ministry.