Turkey posts 6.8 bln liras in budget deficit, meets targets: Minister

ANKARA

Turkey’s budget showed a deficit of 6.8 billion Turkish Liras ($1.82 billion) in February due to a rise in expenses, Finance Minister Naci Ağbal has said, adding that budget developments were in line with targets.

The budget gave 2.4 billion liras of surplus last February. 

“Our budget gave a 6.8 billion lira of deficit in February. The budget posted 4.6 billion liras of surplus in the first two months of the year. Our budget realizations are going in parallel to our targets,” Ağbal said March 15. 

“We will continue with our budget policy in line with a fiscal policy that supports economic growth trend and prioritize the monetary policy with consideration of the 2017 budget targets,” he added. 

He said the budget showed a primary deficit of 1.8 billion liras. 

While the budget incomes rose to 46.9 billion liras in February with a 4.9 percent of increase compared to the same month of 2016, its expenditures rose 27 percent to 53.7 billion liras.  

February’s revenue accounted for 7.8 percent of the total budgeted for the year, compared with 8.1 percent in 2016. 

BCG Partners Chief Economist Özgür Altuğ said the measures taken by the government to back the economy started showing their impact on the budget. 

“We expect worsening in the budget realizations throughout 2017,” he said, as quoted by Reuters. 

The government is aiming for a budget deficit of 46.9 billion liras at the end of the year, according to the finance ministry.        

The ministry had estimated budget expenses for the 2017 fiscal year at 645.1 billion liras, up by almost 14 percent compared with 570 billion liras forecasted for 2016.