Central government budget swings to surplus in November

ANKARA

The central government budget posted a surplus of 75.6 billion Turkish Liras last month after producing deficits in the previous two months, the data from the Finance Ministry showed on Dec. 15.

The budget deficits stood at 95.5 billion liras and 129 billion liras in October and September, respectively.

Budget revenues increased by 115 percent in November from a year ago with tax collection rising more than 114 percent.

Value-added tax and special consumption tax revenues rose by 195 percent and 122 percent, respectively.

Expenditures were up 180 percent year-on-year to 671 billion liras. The annual increase in interest expenditures was 288 percent to 94.6 billion liras, while non-interest expenditures grew 168 percent to 577 billion liras.

Consequently, the central government budget posted a primary surplus of 170 billion liras in November, rising 28 percent compared with the same month of last year.

In October, the budget produced a primary deficit of 28.7 billion liras.

In the first 11 months of 2023, the budget deficit widened to 532 billion liras from 20.5 billion liras in the same period of 2022.

The primary surplus was 99.85 billion liras in January-November, lower than the 272 billion liras of primary surplus the central government budget produced a year ago.