Ex-interest surplus drops in November

Bloomberg

The Treasury in Ankara had reported a so-called primary surplus of YTL 5.4 billion a year ago. Non-interest spending rose 23 percent last month, the Treasury said in an e-mailed statement.

The International Monetary Fund is asking Turkey to rein in spending and bolster revenues as a condition for a new loan package as the global credit crunch pushes the nation’s economy toward the brink of recession.

"Turkey budget data makes grim reading," Tim Ash, head of emerging market research at Royal Bank of Scotland in London, said in a note to investors. "Budget performance in November suggests significant revisions to the draft budget for 2009 are in order." The overall budget had a deficit of YTL 3.6 billion in November compared with a surplus of YTL 4 billion a year earlier, according to Friday’s data that measures cash inflows and outflows.