Treasury cash balance at $23B deficit in 2019

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

The Turkish Treasury's cash balance posted a deficit of 130.5 billion Turkish liras (some $23 billion) in 2019, according to official data released on Jan. 8.  

The Treasury's cash revenues totaled 897 billion Turkish liras ($157.9 billion) last year, rising 16% from the previous year.  

Including interest payments of around 98.3 billion Turkish liras ($17.3 billion), expenditures rose 21% year-on-year to hit 1 trillion Turkish liras ($181.3 billion) in 2019.

Non-interest expenditures amounted to nearly 934.6 billion Turkish liras ($164.5 billion), marking a 37.5 billion-Turkish-lira ($6.6 billion) gap in the primary balance.

The average U.S. dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate this year was around 5.68 in 2019, as one dollar was traded for 4.82 Turkish liras on average in 2018.

In 2018, the Treasury posted a deficit of nearly 70 billion Turkish liras ($14.6 billion) in cash balance.