Budget swings to a deficit

Bloomberg

The overall budget deficit was 610 million Turkish Liras ($395 million) in May compared with a surplus of 3.4 billion liras in the same month last year, the Finance Ministry in Ankara said on Monday in a statement on its Web site. The budget surplus before interest payments on debt, the so-called primary surplus, narrowed to 4.38 billion liras from 5.07 billion liras a year earlier.

The government says a wider budget deficit for the whole of this year is inevitable as the economy moves into recession, reducing tax revenue and leading to more spending on measures to preserve jobs.