Turkey posts budget gap in February

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

Turkey’s central government budget balance produced a deficit of 2.6 billion Turkish Liras in February against a surplus of 988 million liras in the same period of 2011, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Finance.

The primary surplus (figure obtained excluding interest payments on debt) dropped by 17 percent to 5.97 billion liras last month compared with a primary surplus of 7.16 billion liras last year in February. Tax revenues grew by 7.8 percent in the same period compared.

“We continue to think that restructuring overdue tax payments and ongoing fiscal discipline will affect budget balances positively in 2012, whearas a slowing down economy could pose a threat to tax revenues going forward,” said Özgür Altuğ, the chief economist of the BCG Partners Turkey in a note to investors. Value added tax on imports for February posted a year-on-year contraction of 6 percent in US dollar terms.