Turkey runs deficit in February due to infrastructure, interest spending: Minister

ANKARA

AA Photo

Turkey’s budget deficit hit 2.36 billion Turkish Liras ($900 million) in February due to higher seasonal spending on infrastructure and interest expenditures, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said March 16.
The government announced a 1.7 billion-lira surplus in the February budget last year.

Şimşek said budget revenues remained strong despite financial market volatility and lower domestic demand, adding that he expected better budget figures in the coming months due to an anticipated recovery in domestic demand.

Turkey’s government revenue reached 40.2 billion liras in February 2015, a 16.6 percent increase compared with the same period in 2014. Budget expenditures for the same period rose to 42.5 billion liras, a 30 percent increase year-on-year.

Non-interest expenses increased by 21 percent to 35.6 billion liras, and interest expenses by 107 percent to 6.9 billion liras, according to data in February compared to the same month in 2014.

The Finance Ministry has estimated that budget expenses for the 2015 fiscal year will reach 473 billion liras, while budget income will reach 451 billion liras, resulting in a budget deficit of 21 billion liras.

According to the ministry, Turkey’s government budget revenues reached 80.3 billion liras in the first two months of 2015, an 11 percent increase compared with the same period of 2014. Budget expenditures for the same period rose to 78.8 billion liras marking a 14.7 percent increase
year-on-year. Interest expenses reached 12 billion liras for the first two months of 2015.

“We expect a positive impact of the recovery in the domestic demand in the coming months on the budget performance. In this vein, I expect that we will reach the budget targets by the end of the year,” Şimşek said.   

The Turkish government’s budget ran a deficit of 22.7 billion liras in 2014.