Turkish Treasury posts $464 million cash surplus in January

ANKARA

The Turkish Treasury’s cash balance last month saw a surplus of 2.5 billion Turkish Liras ($464 million), according to an official statement on Feb. 8.

In the same month last year, the cash budget produced a deficit of 1.55 billion liras.

In January, the Treasury’s cash revenues totaled some 97 billion liras ($18 billion), showing a 69 percent jump on a yearly basis, the Treasury and Finance Ministry announced.

Including interest payments of around 6.5 billion liras, expenditures rose by 60 percent to reach some 94.5 billion liras.

Official figures showed that non-interest expenditures amounted to nearly 88 billion liras, marking a 9 billion lira surplus in the primary balance.

Turkey’s central government budget deficit stood at 72.6 billion liras ($14.8 billion) in 2018, meeting a year-end target under the country’s new economic program.

Budget revenues rose 20.2 percent to reach 757.8 billion liras in January-December 2018, while tax incomes climbed 15.8 percent to 621.3 billion liras.

Budget expenditures rose to 830.5 billion liras ($170 billion), up 22.4 percent during the same period.

According to the new economic program, the budget deficit/GDP target is 1.8 percent this year, 1.9 percent next year, and 1.7 percent in 2021.