Turkey likely to achieve budget target

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s central administration budget posted a deficit of 3.2 billion Turkish Liras ($1.6 billion) in October due to a raise in expenses, showed the Finance Ministry’s figures on Nov. 15. 

The deficit totaled 7.7 billion liras in the first ten months of this year, as the government forecasted 19.4 billion liras of budget deficit by the end of this year.

The findings from the budget show the budget deficit target of 14.5 billion liras can be achieved in the framework of the medium-term economic program, said Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek in a written statement. While the budget deficit was 3.2 billion liras, the non-interest deficit was 761 million liras and non-interest surplus was 38.5 billion liras in October. Last year’s figures were 4.4 billion liras, 681 million liras and 24.5 billion liras, respectively. The budget income rose to 30 billion liras with a 9.8 percent rise year-on-year as the expenses reached 33.2 billion liras with a 4.5 percent in the same period.